{"id":6145,"date":"2023-04-10T21:05:36","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T21:05:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/?p=6145"},"modified":"2023-04-10T21:06:05","modified_gmt":"2023-04-10T21:06:05","slug":"china-warns-against-taiwan-independence-as-it-ends-military-drill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/china-warns-against-taiwan-independence-as-it-ends-military-drill\/","title":{"rendered":"China warns against Taiwan independence as it ends military drill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

China has warned that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and independence for Taiwan are \u201cmutually exclusive\u201d as it has concluded three days of live-fire drills<\/a> near the self-governed island in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s recent trip to the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we want to protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, we must firmly oppose any form of Taiwan independence separatism,\u201d Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The war games simulated strikes on Taiwan and encirclement of the island, and a state media report said dozens of planes had practised an \u201caerial blockade\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercise \u201ccomprehensively tested the integrated joint combat ability of multiple military branches under actual combat conditions\u201d, the People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s Eastern Command said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, said China\u2019s military will stand ready at all times to defeat any form of \u201cTaiwan independence\u201d and foreign interference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwan\u2019s Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 70 Chinese military aircraft and 11 vessels around Taiwan.\u00a0It said its forces monitored the exercises and aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems were tasked with responding to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ministry said 35 of the detected aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan\u2019s air defence identification zone.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chinese fighter jets carried out \u201csimulated strikes\u201d near the self-governed island during the exercises, which included the Shandong aircraft carrier, the Chinese military said on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMultiple batches of H-6K fighters carrying live ammunition \u2026 carried out multiple waves of simulated strikes on important targets on Taiwan island,\u201d the Eastern Theater Command said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exercises called Joint Sword kicked off on Saturday. They were intended to rehearse an encirclement and blockade of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory and has threatened to take by force if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwan\u2019s government has condemned the exercises while the US has urged China to show restraint. Japan said it had scrambled jets in recent days as a result of the drills. In a statement on Monday, Japan\u2019s Joint Staff said it had observed the Shandong and several other Chinese naval vessels south of Miyako island since Friday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vessels were spotted 230 to 430km (140 to 270 miles) south of the Japanese island, the statement said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe confirmed approximately 120 landings and departures on the Chinese navy\u2019s Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier Shandong, 80 times by fighter aircraft and 40 times by helicopters,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier, Japan had said it was closely following the drills, which took place close to its Okinawa Islands. Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno said \u201cpeace and stability\u201d in the Taiwan Strait were important for the security of both Japan and the international community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the tense situation, the Philippine president said his country will not allow \u201cany offensive actions\u201d to be launched from the bases it has opened to US forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe will not allow our bases to be used for any offensive actions,\u201d President Ferdinand Marcos said on Monday, a week after Manila allowed the US military to use four additional bases<\/a> in the country. \u201cThis is only aimed at helping the Philippines whenever we need help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Expressing anger\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Al Jazeera\u2019s Rob McBride, reporting from Seoul, said the drills were China\u2019s way of \u201cexpressing its anger\u201d over Tsai\u2019s visit to the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsai last week met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California, prompting a furious response from Beijing, which has branded her nationalist Democratic Progressive Party as separatists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taiwan, a parliamentary democracy whose contested status stems from the outcome of the 1927-49 Chinese Civil War, is officially recognised by just a handful of countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US does not officially recognise Taiwan but has expressed opposition to unilateral attempts to change the status quo and has for decades supported the island\u2019s defences with weapons sales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US Department of State said on Sunday that Beijing should not turn Tsai\u2019s visit \u201cinto something it is not or use it as a pretext to overreact\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US navy on Monday said it sailed the USS Milius, a guided-missile destroyer, near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea to uphold \u201cfreedom of navigation\u201d in the strategic waterway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The operation \u201cupheld the rights, freedoms, and lawful uses of the sea\u201d consistent with international law, the navy said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beijing, which claims about 90 percent of the waterway, condemned the passage as an \u201cillegal\u201d intrusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Kremlin on Monday backed the military drills, saying Beijing had a \u201csovereign right\u201d to respond to what Moscow called \u201cprovocative acts\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have witnessed multiple acts that were provocative in their character towards the Chinese People\u2019s Republic,\u201d Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.\u00a0\u201cChina has the sovereign right to respond to these provocative acts, including with military manoeuvres, in strict accordance with international law.\u201d

SOURCE:\u00a0AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

China has warned that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and independence for Taiwan are \u201cmutually exclusive\u201d as it has concluded three days of live-fire drills near the self-governed island in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s recent trip to the United States. \u201cIf we want to protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, we …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":6146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,307,172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asian-issues","category-main-news","category-172"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6145"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6145\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6148,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6145\/revisions\/6148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ameforum.net\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}