The Chinese military drills around Taiwan on Monday were shorter and smaller in scale than similar drills in May, but still backfired, based on the reaction of the international community, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
He said China’s “Joint Sword-2024B” military drills showed that Beijing had a very different interpretation of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech than most other nations.
While most of the world saw Lai’s address as “moderate, practical and rational,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) saw it as provocative and used it as an excuse to launch Monday’s exercises, Tsai said on the sidelines of a legislative session.
Photo: CNA
“The Chinese communists’ military exercise has created a negative effect in that it made the international community more supportive of Taiwan,” Tsai said.
Citing the US reaction, Tsai said the US Department of Defense issued a statement which he described as “extremely rare and strong-worded” in denouncing the latest People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drills.
The Pentagon statement said the PLA’s military operation was “irresponsible, disproportionate and destabilizing.”
Tsai told lawmakers that the PLA also engaged in large-scale cognitive warfare by spreading false information online during Monday’s drills.
One example was a post on PTT, the nation’s largest online bulletin board system, claiming that a liquefied natural gas tanker was unable to dock at Taichung Harbor after being stopped by Chinese warships, he said.
In an attempt to spread fear among Taiwanese, the post warned that once tankers were unable to enter Taiwan, Taiwan could face an energy shortage, Tsai said, adding that state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan immediately denounced the post as a rumor.
Meanwhile, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) yesterday said that China would never commit to renouncing the use of force against Taiwan.
“We are willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the utmost sincerity and endeavor, but we will never commit ourselves to renouncing the use of force,” TAO spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) told a regular news conference in Beijing.
However, that is aimed at the interference of “external forces” and the very small number of Taiwanese separatists, not the vast majority of people in Taiwan, Chen said.
“No matter how many troops Taiwan has and how many weapons it acquires, and no matter whether external forces intervene or not, if it [Taiwan] dares to take risks, it will lead to its own destruction,” he said.
Lai in his speech said that China has no right to represent Taiwan, but that Taiwan was willing to work with the government in Beijing to combat challenges such as climate change, striking both a firm and a conciliatory tone which Taiwanese officials said was a show of goodwill.
Chen said Lai had stuck to his “stubborn separatist position,” and that “there was no goodwill to speak of.”
Chen said Lai’s speech was a harmful “Taiwanese independence manifesto.”
“He [Lai] escalated provocations against the ‘one China principle,’ further entrenching the ‘two-state fallacy,’” Chen said.
Describing Lai as a “Taiwanese independence worker” and a “peace disruptor,” Chen also defended Beijing’s countermeasures as just actions by a sovereign state aimed at safeguarding its territorial integrity, and ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Separately, the Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday rejected the TAO’s earlier negative remarks about Lai’s National Day address.
The council said it is clear that the CCP views the Republic of China as an illegitimate regime and seeks to prevent its continued existence.
Beijing’s positions, including emphasizing the “one China principle” and the so-called “1992 consensus,” are aimed at turning Taiwan into another Hong Kong, the council said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
Taiwan on Friday said a New Zealand hamburger restaurant has apologized for a racist remark to a Taiwanese customer after reports that it had first apologized to China sparked outrage in Taiwan. An image posted on Threads by a Taiwanese who ate at Fergburger in Queenstown showed that their receipt dated Sunday last week included the words “Ching Chang,” a racial slur. The Chinese Consulate-General in Christchurch in a statement on Thursday said it had received and accepted an apology from the restaurant over the incident. The comment triggered an online furor among Taiwanese who saw it as an insult to the
RSS