Taiwan has blamed its “evil neighbor” China as large-scale military exercises again encircle the autonomous island, drawing harsh criticism from allies.
Taipei said multiple Chinese warships and fighter jets crossed the “median line” that separates it from the mainland down the middle of the Taiwan Strait today.
The border, although unofficial, was once a widely recognized border, which the Chinese government claims “no longer exists.”
It comes after the day China fired a barrage of missiles at Taiwan, some of them over the island for the first time, amid a massive war game that state media said was a rehearsal for an invasion. flew the
US Secretary of State Anthony Brinken criticized these missile launches, some of which landed in Japanese waters, calling it a “grave escalation”.
Chinese fighter jets armed with missiles will fly over the Taiwan Strait early Friday morning as Beijing continues to host a major war game around the island.
Taipei said multiple Chinese jets and warships (pictured) crossed the ‘median line’ today – unofficial maritime border between the two countries
Chinese jet fighters – believed to be J-11s – fly across the Taiwan Strait in a gigantic war game set to last until Sunday
Beijing began military drills late Tuesday as U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island and said they would continue until noon Sunday.
Taipei reported that Chinese fighter jets and ships crossed the “Central Line” down the Taiwan Strait on Friday morning.
“As of 11 a.m., multiple units of Chinese fighter jets and warships conducted exercises around the Taiwan Strait and crossed the Strait’s central line,” the defense ministry in Taipei said in a statement.
Chinese incursions have become more common since Beijing declared that unofficial borders no longer exist in 2020.
On China’s scenic Pingtan Island, an AFP journalist saw fighter planes fly overhead and photographed tourists flying along the coast.
Chinese warships were also seen navigating the Taiwan Strait, they added.
While Beijing insisted military exercises were a “necessary” response to Ms Pelosi’s visit to the self-governing and democratic island, Washington warned that China’s leaders would “not overreact.” I chose,” he countered.
They note that a similar visit by a male senator several weeks ago passed without any response.
A French-made Mirage 2000 fighter takes off early Friday morning from the Taiwanese military base in Hsinchu, near the capital Taipei.
Taiwan has accused China of calling it an “evil neighbor” for the drills, which will continue until Sunday.
Pelosi defended her visit on Friday, saying Washington “will not allow” China to isolate Taiwan.
“From the beginning, we have said that our representatives are not about changing the status quo here in Asia, not about changing the status quo in Taiwan,” she told reporters in Tokyo on the final leg of her Asia tour. Told.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang called on allies to ease escalation.
“(We) never thought our evil neighbors would display their power at our door and arbitrarily endanger the world’s busiest waterways with their military exercises,” he said. told reporters.
China’s military exercises included “conventional missile-fired attacks” in waters east of Taiwan, the Chinese military said.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency said the Chinese military flew “more than 100 fighter planes, including fighters and bombers” and “more than 10 destroyers and frigates” during the exercise.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that a Chinese missile flew over Taiwan.
Tokyo said five Chinese ballistic missiles are believed to have fallen into Japan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), four of which are estimated to have passed over Taiwan’s main island.
The EEZ extends up to 200 nautical miles from the Japanese coastline beyond the boundaries of Japanese territorial waters.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida condemned the missile launch as a “serious problem affecting national security and the safety of citizens.”
China launched at least 11 ballistic missiles on Thursday, some of which are believed to have flown over the island for the first time before landing in Japanese waters.
Parts of Japan’s southernmost Okinawa region are close to Taiwan, as are the islands at the center of a long-running dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.
In May, U.S. President Joe Biden also visited Japan, angering Beijing when he said the U.S. military would defend Taiwan militarily if China attempted to take over the island by force.
But Biden and his team argued at the time that their decades-old approach to Taiwan was being preserved.
This means diplomatically endorsing Beijing over Taipei and supporting the government while opposing a formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or a forced takeover by China.
On Friday, Pelosi said the US wanted to find “common ground” with China on issues ranging from rights to climate change.
“Again, it is not our visit that will determine what happens to US-China relations. I have to,” she said.
Tetsuo Kotani, a professor at Meikai University and a senior fellow at the Japan Institute of International Affairs, said China’s military exercises gave the Japanese public a “more” sense of Japan’s defense capabilities compared to Beijing, which has steadily expanded its military power. He said it could give a realistic view.
“Recent military exercises show that what is happening in Ukraine can also happen in Asia,” he told AFP.
The Taipei military said it would not confirm the missile’s flight path.
China’s ruling Communist Party sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has promised to one day take it by force if necessary.
But the scale and intensity of the exercises have sparked outrage in the United States and other democracies.
“China overreacted and chose to use the Chairman’s visit as an excuse to increase its provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” White House Press Secretary John Kirby said at a news conference.
Chinese rockets fired during drills Thursday, more than a dozen rockets fired over Taiwan Strait
A view from the cockpit of a Chinese fighter plane shows the aircraft refueling mid-air as a show of strength to Taiwan and its allies
A Chinese ballistic missile was launched from somewhere in the Ganzhou area toward Taiwan in what the US called a ‘massive escalation’
“Temperatures are quite high,” he added, but “tensions could very easily go down just by forcing China to stop these very aggressive military exercises.”
Japan has lodged a formal diplomatic complaint with Beijing over five missiles believed to have landed in China’s exclusive economic zone.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called for an “immediate cessation of military drills,” saying China’s drills were “a serious problem that affects Japan’s security and the safety of its people.”
But China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the US’ “flagrant provocations” had set a “terrible precedent”.
The operation follows some of the busiest shipping routes on the planet used to supply global markets with critical semiconductors and electronics produced in East Asian factory hubs.
Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Authority has warned ships to avoid waters used for Chinese training.
“Even if temporarily, the closure of these shipping routes will affect trade flows related to not just Taiwan, but Japan and South Korea,” said Nick Maro, chief global trade analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit. also have an impact,” he wrote.
Taiwan said the drill would disrupt 18 international flights passing through the flight information area, and several international airlines told AFP that flights would be diverted.
But markets in Taipei appeared to hint at tensions, with the Taiwan Taiji Shipping Index, which tracks major shipping and airline stocks, up 2.3% early on Friday.
And analysts broadly agree that despite its aggressive stance, Beijing does not want an active military conflict with the United States and its allies over Taiwan.
“What Xi Jinping wants is not to accidentally ignite a war,” Titus Cheng, an associate professor of political science at Taiwan’s National Sun Yat-sen University, told AFP.
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