Taipei: In response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-meeting wen's with the US House of Representatives speaker, China started three days of military drills around Taiwan on Saturday. The island's defence ministry promised a measured response.
The exercises were widely anticipated after China denounced the meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles and were announced the day after Tsai's return from the US.
China has never renounced using force to seize control of the island nation of Taiwan, which is governed democratically. China's claims are strongly rejected by Taiwan's government.
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Beijing's announcement also came shortly after senior European leaders visited China.
The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command announced that the "Joint Sword" exercises and combat readiness patrols around Taiwan had begun, contradicting earlier statements that they would take place in the Taiwan Strait and to Taiwan's north, south, and east "as planned."
It issued a brief statement saying, "This is a serious warning to the collusion and provocation of the Taiwan independence separatist forces and external forces, and it is a necessary action to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Taiwan's Defense Ministry stated that it was keeping a close eye on the situation, exercising extreme caution, and would take appropriate action to protect the security of the island.
According to the ministry, China was using Tsai's visit to the US "as an excuse to conduct military exercises, which has seriously undermined regional peace, stability, and security."
"To defend national sovereignty and national security, the military will respond in a cool, collected, and serious manner, and will stand guard and monitor in accordance with the principles of "not escalating nor disputes."
China is expected to increase its air and sea patrols in an effort to "harass" Taiwan's air defence zone and "squeeze" closer to the Taiwan Strait's median line, which typically acts as an informal barrier between the two. This is according to a senior Taiwan official who is familiar with security planning in the area.
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The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media, said the situation was "as expected" and manageable, and Taiwan's government has practised various scenarios for its response.
Four Chinese aircraft had been spotted in Taiwan's air defence zone in the previous day, according to the ministry's earlier statement on Saturday. This is not an unusual number.
As part of drills announced by China late on Friday, Reuters reporters in a seaside area close to Fuzhou, which is located next to the Taiwanese-controlled Matsu islands, witnessed a Chinese warship firing shells onto a drill area on China's coast.
Later on Saturday, Tsai will meet a delegation of US lawmakers, led by Michael McCaul, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. According to a commentary published on Saturday in The People's Daily, the official newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party, the government has "a strong ability to thwart any form of Taiwan independence secession."
The Chinese government's countermeasures are all part of its legitimate legal right to protect its own sovereignty and territorial integrity, the statement said.
Tsai has offered to talk with China on numerous occasions, but has been rejected because the government sees her as a separatist. She claims that the future of Taiwan rests solely with its people.
If the meeting with McCarthy—who is second in line to succeed the US president after the vice president—took place, China had threatened vague retaliation. After Nancy Pelosi, the then-House Speaker, visited Taipei in August, Beijing held war games there that included live missile launches.
China has not yet indicated whether it will conduct missile drills, unlike in August. When China announced the drills in the past, it published a map that showed which maritime areas close to Taiwan it would be firing into.
Given that the McCarthy meeting took place in the United States, Taiwanese officials had anticipated a milder response, but they had also stated that they could not completely rule out the possibility that China would stage additional drills.
Hours after French President Emmanuel Macron left China, where he had meetings with President Xi Jinping and other top officials, China made its announcement. Beijing was urged by Macron to reason with Russia regarding the conflict in Ukraine.
Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Union, who is in China this week to meet with Xi, stated that it was crucial for the Taiwan Strait to remain stable.
China's official account of the meeting quotes Xi as saying that expecting China to make concessions on Taiwan was "wishful thinking" in response.
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The Chinese defence ministry posted images of Xi meeting Macron and von der Leyen on its home page in addition to announcing the drills around Taiwan.
The Taiwan security source claimed that following the announcement of the drills, China's recent attempts to win over foreign leaders had been ineffective. "All those efforts have disappeared overnight and have been a waste of time since the announcement of drills in the strait."
