China continued its large-scale maneuvers around Taiwan on Sunday morning. As Taiwan’s military reported, 20 Chinese military aircraft and 14 warships took part in the exercises the previous day alone. Chinese drones have also been observed again over the offshore Taiwanese island of Kinmen, which is only ten kilometers from the port city of Xiamen on the Chinese coast.
Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said Sunday China has arrogantly carried out military actions to disrupt regional peace and stability. He urged China not to flex its military muscles. He also said foreign enemies are trying to undermine the morale of the Taiwanese people with cyber attacks and disinformation campaigns.
Response to visit from Nancy Pelosi
The Chinese leadership in Beijing launched the maneuvers in response to the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei this week. The exercises are scheduled to end this Sunday. It is China’s largest show of military power against Taiwan since missile exercises in the mid-1990s, when the United States deployed two aircraft carriers to the Taiwan region.
Pelosi’s visit to the island’s democratic republic was the highest-ranking visit from the United States in a quarter of a century. China is angry because it claims Taiwan as its own. It sees the island as part of the People’s Republic, threatens to conquer it and vehemently rejects official contacts with other countries. But the Taiwanese have long seen themselves as independent. Taiwan has been self-governing since 1949. At that time, Mao Zedong’s communists defeated the nationalist Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek in the Chinese civil war, who then withdrew to the island of Taiwan and ruled there in an authoritarian manner for decades. (apa)