China’s recent large-scale military exercises around Taiwan were “provocative” and destabilizing, not just regionally, but also internationally, the Presidential Office said yesterday.
The exercises on Thursday and Friday were a unilateral military move by China that destabilized the peace and stability of the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait and challenged the international order, Presidential Office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui (郭雅慧) said in a statement.
China’s actions have drawn serious concern and condemnation from the international community, Kuo added.
Photo: Yasuyoshi Chiba, AFP
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched the two-day series of joint military drills in areas surrounding Taiwan three days after the inauguration of President William Lai (賴清德).
The “Joint Sword-2024A” drills were conducted in the Taiwan Strait, and to the north, south and east of Taiwan proper, as well as in areas around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.
Kuo said that maintaining stability in the Indo-Pacific region and the Taiwan Strait is in the interest of the international community and is also a global consensus.
Photo: AFP / the Ministry of National Defense
Lai and his national security team had been closely monitoring the situation and devising appropriate responses to safeguard national security, she added.
In his inauguration speech, Lai said that “if the leader of a country puts the people’s welfare above all, then peace in the Taiwan Strait, mutual benefits, and prosperous coexistence would be common goals.”
He also urged China to stop its military actions against Taiwan and to take joint responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the Strait and surrounding areas.
On Thursday, the Ministry of National Defense said that China was engaging in “irrational provocation.”
China’s exercises focused on joint sea-air combat-readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control and joint precision strikes on key targets, said Xinhua, citing Colonel Li Xi (李熹), spokesman for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command.
It was the third time in two years that China has staged large-scale military exercises around Taiwan, following its unprecedented drills in August 2022, after then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, and another round in April last year, after then-president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) met with then-US House speaker Kevin McCarthy during a transit stop in the US.
The Ministry of National Defense said 111 Chinese aircraft and dozens of naval vessels took part in this week’s drills.
On Friday evening, the Chinese army published images of the drills’ “highlights,” featuring missile launch trucks ready to fire, fighter jets taking off and naval officers looking through binoculars at Taiwanese ships.
Major General Meng Xiangqing (孟祥青), a professor from Beijing-based National Defense University, told Xinhua that PLA vessels “were getting closer to the island [Taiwan] than ever before.”
The UN called for all sides to avoid escalation.
Paraguay yesterday said through a communique issued by its embassy in Taipei that it “observes with concern and condemns the military exercises carried out by the People’s Republic of China in the vicinity of the Republic of China (Taiwan). These constitute a serious threat to the balance in the region.”
The US on Thursday “strongly” urged China to act with restraint.
The Pentagon on Friday announced that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin would meet Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍) at the end of the month at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual gathering of defense officials from around the world in Singapore.
Austin’s meeting with Dong had been widely expected since he last month spoke to Dong by telephone, in what were the first substantive talks between the two powers’ defense chiefs in nearly 18 months.
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