Issued on: 11/08/2022 – 08:45
Taiwan’s military held another live fire drill on Thursday after Beijing ended its largest-ever military exercises around the island and repeated threats to bring self-governed democracy under its control.
Beijing last week infuriated a trip to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official in decades, who organized days of air and sea exercises around the island that took tensions to their highest levels in years. brought.
Taiwan has accused China of using the Pelosi visit as an excuse to launch exercises that would allow it to rehearse for an invasion.
Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps, told AFP that his troops fired howitzers and flares as part of the defense exercise on Thursday morning.
The exercise in Pingtung, Taiwan’s southernmost province, began at 8:30 a.m. (0030 GMT) and lasted about an hour, he said.
Artillery brought in from the shore was lined up side by side, with armed soldiers in units firing howitzers one after another out to sea, a live stream showed.
Taiwan held a similar exercise in Pingtung on Tuesday. Both involved hundreds of troops, the military said.
The military has downplayed the importance of the exercises, saying they were planned already and not in response to China’s war games.
“We have two goals for the exercises, the first is to certify the good condition of the artillery and their condition of maintenance and the second is to confirm last year’s results,” Lou said, referring to the annual exercises.
‘Prepare for War’
The latest exercise came after the Chinese military said its own exercises had ended on Wednesday, saying its troops had “successfully completed several tasks” in the Taiwan Strait while promising to continue patrolling the waters.
But in the same announcement, China added that it would “continue to conduct military training and prepare for war”.
In a separate white paper published Wednesday, China’s office for Taiwanese affairs said Beijing “would not renounce the use of force against its neighbor and reserved itself the opportunity to take all necessary measures”.
“We are ready to create huge space for peaceful reunification, but we will not leave room for separatist activity in any form,” the paper said.
China last issued a white paper on Taiwan in 2000.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry on Thursday joined its top policy body for China by rejecting the “one country, two systems” model Beijing has proposed for the island.
“China’s entire statement absolutely goes against the status quo and its reality,” ministry spokesman Joanne Ou said at a news conference.
“China is using the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as an excuse to destroy the status quo and use the opportunity to cause trouble in an effort to create a new normal for the Taiwanese people. to intimidate.”
“One country, two systems” refers to the model in which Hong Kong and Macau were promised some degree of autonomy under Chinese rule.
Taiwan routinely hosts military exercises simulating defenses against a Chinese invasion, and last month practiced repelling attacks from the sea in a “joint interception operation” as part of its largest annual exercises.
Responding to the Chinese military’s revelation that it would end exercises on Wednesday, Taiwan’s military said it would “adjust how we deploy our troops…without slacking off our vigilance.”
Since the late 1990s, the island has transformed from an autocracy into a vibrant democracy, solidifying a more distinctly Taiwanese identity.
Relations between the two sides have deteriorated significantly since Tsai Ing-wen became the president of Taiwan in 2016.
Tsai and her Democratic Progressive Party do not consider Taiwan a part of China.
Their platform falls under China’s broad definition of Taiwanese separatism, which includes those who advocate an identity separate from the mainland.
(AFP)