Beijing begins maneuvers in areas to the north, south and east of the island, days after President Lai's first speech on National Day.
China's military has begun a new round of war games with ships and aircraft near Taiwan, just days after the self-ruled democratic island celebrated its National Day.
The exercises, called Joint Sword-2024B, were being carried out in “areas north, south and east of the island of Taiwan,” Capt. Li Xi, spokesman for the Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command, said Monday.
He added that the exercises “focused on issues of maritime-air combat readiness patrolling, blockade of ports and key areas” and would also involve an “assault on maritime and land targets.”
The exercises were a “legitimate and necessary operation to safeguard state sovereignty and national unity,” he added, without giving a date for their conclusion.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry expressed its strong condemnation of China's “irrational and provocative act” and said it had “sent appropriate forces to respond accordingly to protect freedom and democracy and defend the sovereignty” of Taiwan.
In recent years, China has stepped up its military activity around Taiwan, which it claims as its own. The latest exercises come just days after the island's president, William Lai Ching-te, gave his first National Day speech, pledging that he would resist any “annexation or invasion” and that Beijing had no right to represent the 23 million inhabitants of the island.
“It was widely anticipated that the EPL [People’s Liberation Army] would hold military exercises after Lai’s National Day speech,” Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund, told Al Jazeera. “The drills have the effect of demonstrating to the national audience that the PCC [Chinese Communist Party] He is determined to defend Chinese territory. They also intend to warn Taipei and Washington not to cross Beijing's red lines.”
'It will pass'
Beijing has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control and said the exercises were a warning against “separatist acts by Taiwan independence forces.”
He has condemned Lai, who was elected in January and took office in May, as a “separatist” and previously organized military exercises, Joint Sword-2024A, three days after his inauguration.
Lev Nachman, a political science professor at National Taiwan University in Taipei, said China's latest actions were not a surprise.
“While military threats are no small matter, we all knew that the PRC [People’s Republic of China] “I would respond to Lai’s Double Ten Days speech with military threats of some kind,” Nachman wrote in X. “There is no need to panic or overreact. We all saw this coming. It will pass quickly.”
In his Oct. 10 speech, Lai also appeared to reach out to Beijing, expressing hope for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges” and urging Beijing to use its influence to help resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Chinese state newspaper Global Times, in an analysis of the speech published Sunday, cited analysts who described Lai's speech as a “poison pill wrapped in cellophane.” Other state media accused Lai of promoting a “two-state” theory to describe Taiwan and China after he last week pointed out the different ages of the two governments. The People's Republic of China, which celebrated its National Day on October 1, turns 75, while the Republic of China, which celebrated it on October 10 and is based in Taipei, turned 113.
Kuang-shun Yang, co-founder of Taipei-based think tank US-Taiwan Watch, said the exercises could be evidence of China testing the waters internationally at a time of global turmoil, citing the war between Russia and Ukraine. , conflicts in the Middle East and threats from North Korea.
“We can see that the world has many regional tension points that are ongoing and perhaps Beijing sees this as… an opportunity to test its will and see if the world's support for Taiwan is strong enough,” he said. to Al Jazeera.
Beijing has sought to erase Taiwan from the international stage, blocking it from global forums and poaching its few remaining formal diplomatic allies.
The United States remains Taiwan's main international supporter.
With reporting from Erin Hale in Taipei
