The Chinese military’s record number of incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) has undermined peace in the region, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, warning Beijing against further actions that could accidentally spark conflict across the Taiwan Strait.
“Chinese aggression has severely undermined regional peace and stability,” Tsai said at the weekly meeting of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Central Standing Committee. “Beijing must refrain from going too far and accidentally sparking conflict across the Strait.”
A total of 149 Chinese aircraft entered Taiwan’s ADIZ over four days — 38 on Friday, 39 on Saturday, 16 on Sunday and 56 on Monday — prompting expressions of concern from countries such as the US, Australia and Japan.
Photo: EPA-EFE / Ministry of National Defense
Germany on Monday also weighed in, with German Foreign Office deputy spokesman Christofer Burger expressing Berlin’s “great concern” over the rising tensions between the two sides of the Strait.
Beijing’s disregard for regional security and stability, and its provocative aircraft incursions have met with serious concern and condemnations from the international community, ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) said in a statement.
Germany is a like-minded partner, with peoples in both countries maintaining solid friendship and close exchanges, Ou said, adding that Taiwan would be happy to engage in talks on regional security issues with Germany and other democratic partners to defend peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.
In other developments, the military yesterday publicly confirmed for the first time the existence of the “Yun Feng” (雲峰, Cloud Peak) medium-range surface-to-surface missile, which has been under development since the 1990s.
Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) mentioned the missile during a joint meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign and National Defense Committee and Finance Committee.
When asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) about the development and capabilities of the Yun Feng missile, Chiu was unwilling to reveal any details, saying only that the military is still “working on it.”
It was the first time the Ministry of National Defense has publicly acknowledged the existence of the missile, which is said to have a range of up to 1,500km.
Local media speculated last year that the missile was tested in April last year, but the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology refused to comment on the issue.
The Yun Feng missile has reportedly been under development since the 1990s and is designed to strike land-based targets inside China, local and foreign media reports have said.
Capable of hitting strategic targets such as airports, harbors and command centers in inland China, the Yun Feng missile is a key part of Taiwan’s asymmetric warfare plan to erode China’s combat capabilities, said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a senior researcher at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
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