The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said on Thursday, August 4, that China launched at least 11 ballistic missiles in waters near the independent island. The launches came amid Beijing’s largest military exercises in Taiwanese space that include major live-fire drills. A show of force after the visit of the president of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to the territory that China considers its own.
Taiwan’s northern, southern and eastern coastlines were targeted by at least 11 Chinese Dongfeng ballistic missiles, the autonomous island’s Defense Ministry said.
The moves are part of “live fire drills” announced by Beijing after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei was seen as challenging.
China’s eastern military command confirmed on August 4 that at around 1:00 pm local time, its Army units “implemented long-range live-fire training in the Taiwan Strait and conducted pinpoint strikes in targeted areas in the eastern part” of the Formosa Strait that separates the Asian giant from the island.
These are unprecedented operations, according to military analysts quoted by the Chinese state newspaper ‘Global Times’, and more projectiles are expected to fly over Taiwanese space.
“This is an irrational move to defy the international order,” said the island’s defense ministry spokesman, Sun Li-fang.
VIDEO: Chinese military helicopters fly past Pingtan island, one of mainland China’s closest points to Taiwan, in Fujian province on Thursday.
China has begun massive military drills off Taiwan following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island pic.twitter.com/7czzPNQbNp
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 4, 2022
Beijing justifies its actions and assures that they are “defensive”.
“In the current fight over Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the United States is the provocateur, China is the victim,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hua Chunying said.
The show of force around vital sea lanes has disrupted 18 international routes in the past few hours, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said.
The Japanese press published that at least five Chinese missiles fell in its waters, to the east of the island.
Meanwhile, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that military operations are focused on “blockade, attack on sea targets, attack on land targets and airspace control.”
The exercises that set off the alarms in the region are a joint effort between the Navy, the Air Force and other military departments in Beijing, which will last until at least next Sunday, August 7.
What happens between Taiwan and China?: the context behind the tension
The most recent trigger was the visit of a high-level US legislator, but this is a new episode in more than seven decades of confrontation.
Separated by a strait, opposing ideological positions and a historical conflict, China and Taiwan have coexisted amid tensions, due to the island’s indefinite status.
There is not even a consensus on its name, since it is also called the Republic of China. Both claim to be the “authentic China”.
To understand the current differences, it is necessary to remember that in 1945, after the defeat of Japan, which had taken the island from the Chinese dynasty 50 years earlier, China recovered the Taiwanese territory.
However, in 1949, the government of the Nationalist Party, or Kuomintang, was defeated in a bloody civil war on the mainland by the Communist Party Army.
Then, the Chinese communists led by Mao Zedong, leader of the Communist Party of China, founded the People’s Republic of China, with Beijing as its capital.
While Chiang Kai-Shek, leader of the Kuomintang Chinese Nationalist Party, went into exile in Taiwan along with around 1.2 million Chinese, most of them military. They managed to establish themselves on the island as their own territory, after successfully prevailing over a brief incursion by communist troops.
Since then, two sides have historically claimed to be the legitimate rulers of all the Asian giant’s territories, including Taiwan. There is no international agreement on the status of the island that has functioned as independent.
But China has increasingly declared that Taiwan must be brought under its control, by force if necessary, even in defiance of Washington and other supporters of the island’s democracy.
Furthermore, Pelosi’s visit came at a particularly sensitive time as Chinese President Xi Jinping, commander-in-chief of the armed forces, is preparing to seek a third five-year term as leader of the ruling Communist Party.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province that will one day be “reunified” with the rest of its territory. Any action deemed to legitimize the Taipei government, such as a visit by a high-ranking foreign politician, is seen by Beijing as a violation of its “sovereignty” that would warrant a “tough response.”
Xi warns that the fate of Taiwan cannot remain unresolved indefinitely. Washington points out that Beijing could seek a military solution in the coming years.
With Reuters, AP and local media
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