A total of 42 Chinese warplanes and eight naval vessels were spotted around Taiwan on Aug. 19, a day after Taiwanese Vice President William Lai Ching-te returned from a trip that included stopovers in the United States.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry detected that 26 PLA (People’s Liberation Army) aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, prompting Taiwan’s military to deploy aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems in response.
China’s military said it launched joint air and sea patrols, and navy and air force military exercises, around Taiwan as a “stern warning” to the “collusion of Taiwan independence separatists with foreign elements and their provocations.”
“The patrols and exercises are meant to train the coordination of military vessels and airplanes and their ability to seize control of air and sea spaces,” the spokesperson stated.
In response, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry criticized China for its “irrational and provocative behavior,” saying it caused “substantial damage to regional security.”
The ministry said it will dispatch appropriate forces to respond to the situation.
China Condemns Lai’s US Stops
The drills came just a day after Mr. Lai, the front-runner in Taiwan’s presidential elections, ended his trip to Paraguay, where he attended the president’s inauguration.Paraguay is Taiwan’s last diplomatic ally in South America; Honduras severed ties with the self-governing island nation in favor of China in March, leaving Taiwan with formal diplomatic relations with only 13 countries.
China’s Foreign Ministry condemned the visit and called Mr. Lai “a troublemaker,” reiterating that Beijing “firmly opposes any form of official interaction between the U.S. and the Taiwan region.”
A top U.S. official has said that such stopovers by Taiwanese officials are routine, that they’ve happened many times previously, and that there’s no reason for “provocative” responses by the regime in Beijing.
“On the issue of how the [People’s Republic of China] might or might not react, like I said before, this is a routine occurrence,” said Ms. Oudkirk, the de facto U.S. ambassador in Taiwan.
“There is absolutely no reason for the PRC to use the transit as a pretext for any sort of provocative action.”
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views Taiwan as a renegade province that must be united with the mainland by any means necessary, even though Taiwan has never been ruled by the CCP and has its own democratic government.
