The Chinese Army resumed military exercises around Taiwan on August 15, after the visit of a high-level delegation from the US Congress, which met in recent hours, in Taipei, with President Tsai Ing-Wen. Taiwan said it is developing cooperation with international allies to “closely monitor the military situation”, while Beijing accused Washington of “sabotaging” Chinese sovereignty and supporting the independence of the island it claims as its own.
Beijing executes new “combat drills” and renews its rhetoric of “preparing for war” in Taiwan. All despite the fact that on August 10 he announced the end of a series of military, maritime and air exercises near the island.
The reason? The visit of a bipartisan delegation of United States congressmen to Taipei. The high-level group arrived in the Taiwanese capital on an unannounced official trip on the night of Sunday, August 14, and departed on August 15 in the late afternoon local time.
But the brief visit was enough to infuriate Beijing, which again organized joint patrols of its forces, in “preparation for multi-service combat and offensive drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan,” it announced Monday. August 15 the Eastern Theater Command, the Chinese Army unit responsible for the area adjacent to the island that functions independently.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to train and prepare for war, resolutely defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will resolutely crush any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatism and foreign interference,” the Chinese Defense Ministry said. .
China’s military said it carried out more exercises near Taiwan as a group of US lawmakers visited the Chinese-claimed island and met President Tsai Ing-wen, in what Beijing said was an infringement of its sovereignty https://t.co/eQDbB3k0a5
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 15, 2022
The Xi Jinping administration also accused foreign lawmakers of “fully exposing the true face of the United States as a spoiler of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.”
According to a video released by the Beijing military, the new military drills took place near the Penghu Islands, which lie in the Formosa Strait and are home to a major air base.
The exercises were “a severe impediment for the United States and Taiwan to continue playing political tricks and undermining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” said the Chinese Army’s Eastern Theater Command.
What was the reason for the new visit that sparked the ire of Beijing?
The US congressmen, led by Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu, and members of the Taiwanese Parliament’s Foreign and Defense Committee. , as detailed by the American Institute on the island, the de facto embassy of Washington in that territory.
“We are engaging in close cooperation with international allies to closely monitor the military situation. At the same time, we are doing our best to let the world know that Taiwan is determined to safeguard stability and the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.” “, President Tsai said about the reasons for the arrival of the US congressmen.
For his part, the chairman of the Foreign and National Defense Committee of the Taiwan legislature, Lo Chih-cheng, said that the visit has been of great importance, because it conveys the message of support from the American people to Taiwanese citizens, in a moment of high tension.
“It shows that China cannot prevent politicians from any country from visiting Taiwan,” Lo added.
Washington, whose delegation was also made up of Republican representatives Aumua Amata and Coleman Radewagen and Democrats John Garamendi, Alan Lowenthal and Don Beyer, reported that they had the opportunity to exchange views with their counterparts on “a wide range of issues of significance” for the two territories that ranges from reducing tensions in the Formosa Strait to investing in Taiwan’s crucial semiconductor industry.
“We have a moral obligation to do everything possible to avoid unnecessary conflict … Taiwan has shown incredible restraint and discretion during difficult times,” Senator Markey told Tsai.
This is the second high-level US visit to the island, after the one led on August 2 by the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, considered by the Chinese government as “cross a red line” and set off a series of live-fire drills around the island.
But this time the official trip was much more discreet than Pelosi’s. The meeting between Tsai and the congressmen was not broadcast live on their social networks, a common practice when high-level foreign guests arrive on the island.
The group left Taiwan late Monday afternoon, and only after that did the presidential office release footage of the meeting with the Taiwanese president.
Tsai: “China’s exercises affect peace and stability in the region”
During the meeting with the congressmen of the Joe Biden Administration, the president of the island that functions autonomously, with its own Government and Army, assured that “China’s exercises have greatly affected the peace and stability of the region”.
Visits by top US officials to Taiwan have been going on for decades and even Pelosi’s trip was unprecedented. However, the frequency and profile of the official arrivals of the first power has increased since the Administration of former President Donald Trump and now under the Government of Joe Biden.
Taiwan has also bought more weapons from the United States in recent years as China continues to pressure the island amid deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing.
Beyond the geopolitical risks of rising tensions between two world powers, a protracted crisis across the Taiwan Strait could have major implications for international supply chains at a time when the world is already facing disruption and uncertainty in the wake of the Covid pandemic. -19 and in the midst of Russia’s war in Ukraine, two of the world’s leading grain exporters.
In particular, Taiwan is a crucial supplier of computer chips crucial to the global economy, including China’s high-tech sectors that supply much of the world.
On Friday, August 12, Kurt Campbell, deputy assistant to US President Joe Biden, stated that China “has overreacted” to Pelosi’s visit and that its actions remain “provocative, destabilizing and unprecedented.”
Against this background, he stated that the United States would send warships and planes through the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.
With Reuters and AP
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