Taiwan’s foreign minister says China is drilling part of an invasion plan – newsdubai

Taiwan’s foreign minister said Tuesday that China used the military drills it launched in protest of US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit as a plan to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island.

Joseph Wu, speaking at a press conference in Taipei, offered no timetable for a possible invasion of Taiwan, which China claims as its own.

He said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the drills continued, with China often breaching the unofficial center line down the Taiwan Strait.

“China has used the exercises in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu said.

“It conducts large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber attacks, disinformation and economic coercion, in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan.

“After the exercises are completed, China may try to routinize its action in an attempt to destroy the long-term status quo across the Taiwan Strait,” Wu said.

Such moves threatened regional security and gave “a clear picture of China’s geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan”, Wu said, calling for greater international support to stop China effectively controlling the strait.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office responded to Wu’s comments by saying he was a “diehard” supporter of Taiwan independence and his remarks “distort the truth and obscure the facts”.

A Pentagon official said Monday that Washington stood by its assessment that China would not attempt to invade Taiwan in the next two years.

Wu spoke as military tensions simmered after the planned end on Sunday of four days of China’s largest ever exercises around the island – exercises that included ballistic missile launches and simulated naval and air strikes in the skies and seas around Taiwan.

China’s Eastern Theater Command announced on Monday that it would conduct new joint exercises focusing on anti-submarine and naval attack operations – confirming fears by some security analysts and diplomats that Beijing would continue to press Taiwan’s defenses.

On Tuesday, the command said it continued to conduct military drills and exercises in the seas and airspace around Taiwan, focusing on blockades and resupply logistics.

‘Standoff’

ONE person familiar with security planning in the areas around Taiwan described to Reuters on Tuesday a continuing “standoff” around the median line involving about 10 warships each from China and Taiwan.

“China continued to try to push in to the median line,” the person said. “Taiwanese forces there have been trying to keep the international waterways open.”

Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Tuesday that China’s continued military exercises “highlight that its threat power has not declined”.

When Pelosi left the region last Friday, China also dropped some lines of communication with the United States, including theater-level military talks and discussions on climate change.

Taiwan began its own long-range drills on Tuesday, firing howitzer artillery into the sea in southern Pingtung County, attracts a small crowd of curious onlookers to a nearby beach.

US President Joe Biden, in his first public comments on the issue since Pelosi’s visit on Monday, said he was concerned about China’s actions in the region, but he was not concerned about Taiwan.

“I’m concerned that they’re moving as much as they are,” Biden told reporters in Delaware, referring to China. “But I don’t think they’re going to do anything more than they are.”

Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl also said the US military would continue to conduct voyages through the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.

China has never ruled out taking Taiwan by force, and on Monday Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China conducted normal military exercises “in our waters” in an open, transparent and professional manner, adding that Taiwan was part of China.

Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and says only the Taiwanese people can decide the island’s future.