Taiwanese soldiers fire shells during drills in Pingtung County on August 9, 2022 (AFP/Sam Yeh)
Taiwan’s military conducted a live ammunition artillery drill on Tuesday simulating the island’s defense against a Chinese invasion that Taipei accuses Beijing of plotting.
An AFP reporter on the spot saw the start of operations in Pingtung County (south) shortly after 00:40 GMT, with flares and artillery fire. The maneuvers ended around 01:30 GMT, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps.
Several hundred soldiers were deployed, as well as about 40 howitzers, the army said. A new exercise is scheduled for Thursday.
Tuesday’s exercise attracted many onlookers.
“We must have countermeasures against the mainland blockade,” said Chen, who did not give his first name. “Conducting military exercises will also let them know that Taiwan is ready. I hope both sides can show some restraint,” he added.
China launched its largest military, air and sea maneuvers around Taiwan last week in response to a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to visit the island. independent for decades.
Beijing “used the exercises and its military roadmap to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Taiwan’s foreign minister Joseph Wu said Tuesday at a press conference in Taipei after the Taiwanese maneuvers.
“China’s real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and across the region,” he added.
“It conducts large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation campaign and economic coercion to weaken people’s morale in Taiwan,” he continued.
Map of Taiwan, locating Pingtung County, where the army organized an artillery exercise (AFP / )
China considers Taiwan, with a population of around 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War (1949 ).
Lou Woei-jye had assured Monday that the Taiwanese exercises were already scheduled and that it was not a response to the Chinese maneuvers in progress.
The island, separated from mainland China by a strait 180 kilometers wide, regularly organizes military exercises simulating a Chinese invasion.
– Biden “not worried” –
The Taiwan drills come after China extended its own joint sea and air maneuvers around the island on Monday.
Taiwanese soldiers fire shells during drills in Pingtung County on August 9, 2022 (AFP/Sam Yeh)
They prompted a warning, as usual, from Beijing.
“Any attempt to oppose, by armed force, the course of history and reunification will inevitably face the firm opposition of the whole Chinese people. It would be overestimating your abilities, showing recklessness and doom fail,” Chinese Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin told reporters on Tuesday.
The Chinese military confirmed exercises were continuing on Tuesday, involving air and sea units.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said in a statement that it was conducting training exercises around the island, “focusing on joint blockade and support operations”.
The Taiwanese military said it detected 45 Chinese planes and 10 ships operating in the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, with 16 planes crossing the median line – an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that Beijing does not recognize.
Joseph Wu did not fail to thank his Western allies during his press conference, including Nancy Pelosi, for standing up to China.
“It also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not yield to the bullying of authoritarianism,” he said.
No Chinese warplanes or ships entered Taiwan’s territorial waters – within 12 nautical miles of land – during the Beijing drills, Taiwan said.
Last week, however, the Chinese military released a video of an Air Force pilot filming the island’s coast and mountains from his cockpit, showing how close he had come. Taiwanese coasts.
Ballistic missiles were also fired over the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, during exercises last week, according to Chinese state media.
Chinese military helicopters near the Taiwanese island of Pingtan on August 4, 2022, as part of major military exercises (AFP / Hector RETAMAL)
The scale and intensity of China’s drills, as well as its withdrawal from international climate and defense negotiations, have drawn outrage from the United States and other Western countries.
But Beijing on Monday defended its behavior, calling it “firm, forceful and appropriate” in the face of US provocation.
“(We) are only issuing a warning to those responsible” for this crisis, argued Wang Wenbin, promising that China “will firmly break the illusion of the Taiwanese authorities to obtain independence through the United States. “.
Washington, however, considered the risk of escalation from Beijing to be low. “I’m not worried, but I’m concerned that they’re fussing around so much. But I don’t believe they’re doing more than what they’re doing,” President Joe said on Monday. Biden.