Thu, May 30, 2024 page3

• Chinese drills about propaganda, official says

  • By Ben Blanchard / Reuters
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  China’s military drills last week were more about propaganda and intimidation than starting a war, but Chinese forces did show how they could react quickly, National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.

  China said it carried out the two days of war games starting on Thursday last week as “punishment” for President William Lai’s inauguration speech on Monday last week, in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “not subordinate to each other,” which China viewed as a declaration the two are separate countries.

  Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwanese can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but been rebuffed.

  

  National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen, right, speaks at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee.

  Photo: CNA

  Speaking to reporters at parliament, Tsai said the aim of China’s drills was not to go to war.

  “The purpose of the military exercises was to intimidate,” he said.

  The drills were meant to show an external and domestic audience that Beijing “has absolute control over the situation in the Taiwan Strait,” Tsai added.

  Speaking in Beijing, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) repeated its list of complaints about Lai being a dangerous supporter of Taiwanese independence and threatened continued Chinese military activity.

  The drills were a “just action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” she said.

  “As Taiwan’s provocations for independence continue, the People’s Liberation Army’s actions to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity continue,” she said.

  The government says Taiwan is already an independent country.

  China says any decisions on Taiwan’s future are for China’s 1.4 billion people to make, not Taiwan’s 23 million, and has offered a Hong Kong-style “one country, two systems” autonomy model, though that has almost no public support in Taiwan, according to opinion polls.

  “Different systems are not an obstacle to reunification, let alone an excuse for separation,” Zhu said.

  China has never explained how it would integrate Taiwan’s vibrant democracy and direct election of its leaders into any plan to govern the nation.

  China has in the past four years sent its military to areas around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, as it seeks to exert pressure on Taipei.

  However, Beijing also appeared to be trying to keep the scope of these drills contained, the National Security Bureau said in a written report to lawmakers, adding that there was no declaration of no-fly or no-sail zones and the exercises lasted only two days.

  “The intention was to avoid the situation escalating and international intervention, but in the future it is feared [China] will continue its compound coercion against us, gradually changing the Taiwan Strait’s ‘status quo,’” the report said.

  Chinese forces mobilized almost as soon as China announced the drills early on Thursday last week, Tsai said.

  “The speed was extremely fast, demonstrating rapid mobilization capabilities,” he added.
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