Chinese military threat on the rise, warns Taiwan foreign minister

TAIPEI (Reuters) – China is stepping up military readiness to overtake Taiwan, the island’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said Wednesday after a recent surge in Chinese exercises near the island that Beijing considers its own.

Taiwan has complained that China has intensified threats of military activity near Taiwan in recent months. Beijing has not renounced the use of force to bring the democratic island under its control.

“Looking at the long-term trend, China appears to be gradually increasing its military readiness, especially in the air or in the waters near Taiwan,” Wu told reporters.

“What China is doing now is increasing preparedness to solve the Taiwan problem,” he said.

“The threat is on the rise.”

Beijing routinely says that such exercises are not unusual and are designed to show the country’s determination to defend its sovereignty.

The Taiwanese defense ministry reported in June eight incidents of Chinese military aircraft intrusion into its air defense identification zone, in which Taiwanese planes issued radio warnings to remove intruders from airspace.

Wu said such intrusions “occurred almost every day” in June and were “much more frequent” than the government had disclosed to the public. He said China has also carried out several “simulated” military attacks against Taiwan.

“These behaviors concern us,” Wu said, adding that Taiwan was deepening its security ties with its allies, including the United States, which has no official diplomatic ties to Taiwan, but is its main international backup provider and arms provider.

Wu said attacking Taiwan could be a “very convenient scapegoat” for the Chinese government to deflect domestic pressure, which he says is struggling with an economy that is slowing rapidly amid the coronavirus pandemic and the current flood wave. .

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who won reelection for a landslide in January promising to confront China, has made military modernization a priority. The island posted its largest increase in defense spending in more than a decade last year.

Taiwan, one of a growing number of critical points in the relationship between the United States and China, conducted live-fire exercises simulating the repulsion of an invading force last week, with Tsai saying it showed its determination to defend the island.