President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday vowed to defend Taiwan’s freedom while preserving peace in the region, as Beijing began two days of drills around Taiwan as “punishment” for “separatist acts.”
As of 2pm, China had dispatched 15 combat ships, 16 coast guard ships, and 42 fighter jets and early warning aircraft during the first day of its “Joint Sword-2024A” exercises around Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense told a news conference.
The exercises were launched by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command soon after it made an announcement at 7:45am yesterday, said Major General Huang Wen-chi (黃文?), assistant deputy chief of staff for intelligence.
Photo: Ann Wang, Reuters
Of the Chinese coast guard ships, four were detected off the east coast of Taiwan, three were off the southeast coast and nine were in waters near Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, he said.
Twenty-eight of the 42 aircraft entered the nation’s response zone, Huang said.
“Unlike China’s previous military exercises around Taiwan, it did not give precise longitudes and latitudes in which military exercises would be held, nor did it announce no-fly zones,” he said.
Source: CNA
PLA aircraft and vessels did not enter the nation’s contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44km) off Taiwan proper, Huang said, adding that no live-fire exercises were detected.
Major General Tung Chih-hsing (董冀星), head of the ministry’s joint combat planning department, said that Chief of the General Staff Admiral Mei Chia-shu (梅家樹) presided over a combat readiness guidance meeting and gave two key instructions to the military.
“First, the military was asked to step up its intelligence-gathering and reconnaissance efforts, and elevate response command and control at all levels. Second, all levels of the military must handle the situation using crisis management procedures and maintain normal combat readiness tasks and reconnaissance drills,” Tung said.
Photo: CNA
Major General Lou Woei-jye (樓偉傑), director of the Political Warfare Bureau’s Cultural and Psychological Warfare Section, said that the military has produced short films to counter Chinese cognitive warfare tactics, to be aired on social media and in foreign embassies.
During a visit to a military base in Taoyuan, Lai said he would “stand on the front line ... to jointly defend national security.”
“At this moment the international community is paying a lot of attention to democratic Taiwan,” the president said in a speech that did not directly mention the drills.
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP
“Faced with external challenges and threats, we will continue to defend the values of freedom and democracy, and safeguard peace and stability in the region,” he said.
Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting earlier in the day that the ministry had earlier seen signs showing Beijing would conduct military exercises.
“Our recent observations showed that the way that the Chinese military deployed around the Taiwan Strait pointed to a potential joint military exercise,” Po said, adding that all information is within the scope of the ministry’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operation.
The Coast Guard Administration said that it dispatched seven ships and 16 boats to help dispel Chinese coast guard ships off the north and east coasts.
Presidential Office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui (郭雅慧) said that there is strong international consensus for maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the Indo-Pacific region.
“However, it is regrettable to see China unilaterally conducting provocative military exercises, as these exercises threaten not only freedom and democracy in Taiwan, but also the status quo of peace and stability in the region,” Kuo said.
“The Presidential Office has held the consistent position that maintaining peace and stability is a shared responsibility and goal for both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Our national security team and all military units have a full grasp of the military situation. In the face of external challenges and threats, we will continue to protect our democracy and the public may rest assured that we are confident and capable of safeguarding our national security,” she added.
China’s military said the drills would serve as “strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces.”
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin (汪文斌) adopted language commonly used by China’s propaganda outlets.
“Taiwan independence forces will be left with their heads broken and blood flowing after colliding against the great ... trend of China achieving complete unification,” Wang told reporters.
Additional reporting by AFP
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS