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(CNN) – Taiwan’s president has accused Beijing of intentionally inflaming tensions in East Asia after Chinese warplanes crossed the sensitive median line through the strait that separates the mainland and the autonomous island nearly 40 times on Friday and Saturday. .
Taken together, the repeated raids, which came from multiple directions and involved a combination of sophisticated fighter jets and heavy bombers, are unprecedented in modern times and mark a significant escalation in tensions across the Strait.
“What we are seeing now is not just a situation across the Taiwan Strait, but a regional situation. China’s recent military activities, especially in recent days, clearly constitute a threat of use of force, which is part of their verbal attacks and military threats (against Taiwan), “President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters on Sunday.
The spike in Chinese military activity came when Keith Krach, the U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic, Energy and Environmental Affairs, held meetings in the island’s capital, Taipei, ahead of a memorial service on Saturday for the former president of Taiwan Lee Teng-hui.
The three-day visit to the island was denounced by Beijing, and a spokesman for the country’s Foreign Ministry demanded that the two sides “immediately stop” official exchanges.
China has reacted with growing anger over warming ties between Taipei and Washington, and has intensified military drills in the waters around the island that Beijing continues to regard as an inseparable part of its territory despite the two sides having been ruled separately for more than seven decades. .
The middle line of the Taiwan Strait has been an informal but largely respected control border for Beijing and Taipei. According to reports from the government of Taiwan and the United States, before the weekend, Beijing’s fighter jets had only intentionally crossed it three times since 1999: once in March 2019, once in February this year, and again during a visit. US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in August of this year.
On Friday and Saturday, a total of 37 Chinese jets, a mix of H-6 bombers, J-10, J-11 and J-16 fighters, and a Y-8 anti-submarine warplane crossed the midline, according to the Defense. from Taiwan. Press releases from the Ministry.
The ministry said in a statement that it “issued radio warnings, encoded combatants and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor activities.” In his comments, Tsai said such actions would make other countries in the region “more aware of the threat posed by China.”
On Monday, Beijing said its forces are operating legally. “Taiwan is an inalienable part of the Chinese territory and there is no so-called middle line,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.
‘A threat of force’
The United States has maintained close ties with Taiwan since the island split from mainland China in 1949 after the end of a bloody civil war. But since Washington and Beijing established formal diplomatic ties in 1979, the United States had largely refrained from sending high-level officials to Taipei so as not to antagonize the Chinese government.
Chinese leader President Xi Jinping has been clear in his ambitions to “reunify” the island with the mainland and has refused to rule out the use of force, despite the fact that the ruling Chinese Communist Party has never exercised direct control. over Taiwan.
The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said in a statement on Friday that the recent exercises were made necessary due to the “current situation in the Taiwan Strait.”
A spokesman added that Chinese troops had “the confidence and determination to thwart any attempt by any person or force to carry out ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities in any form.”
A detailed report on the air drills in the Global Times, a Beijing-based state nationalist tabloid, accused the United States of “playing the Taiwan card” and escalating “provocations in the military and diplomacy.”
The report, which quotes mainland Chinese military analysts, noted that the combination of fighter jets that the PLA deployed was similar to an actual combat situation and covered a variety of different scenarios.
The “PLA drills this time are not a warning, but a rehearsal for a Taiwan takeover,” the report said, citing analysts.
In apparent response to repeated threats from Beijing, Washington has stepped up cooperation with Taipei, approving new arms sales, including for F-16 fighter jets and M1A1 main battle tanks, as well as sending Azar, a cabinet secretary, to visit last month, making him the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island in decades.
Last week, a congressional aide told CNN that the United States is preparing to sell seven packages of weapons systems to Taiwan, including the Reaper MQ-9B drones.
The US military has also been making its presence known, sending warships across the Taiwan Strait with increasing frequency.
In a statement Friday, the Pentagon said Beijing was increasing tensions in the region.
“The aggressive and destabilizing reactions of the PLA reflect a continuing attempt to alter the status quo and rewrite history. This is another example of how the People’s Republic of China (People’s Republic of China) increasingly uses its armed forces as a tool of coercion. with Taiwan and other neighbors, “he said. Pentagon spokesman John Supple.
US Army in live fire drills
While PLA forces conducted drills near Taiwan, US forces participated in a series of live-fire exercises off Guam, 1,700 miles (2,750 kilometers) to the southeast.
On Saturday, US warships, submarines and warplanes involved in the Valiant Shield 2020 exercises participated in live-fire missile drills, during which a retired US Navy frigate was sunk.
“This exercise demonstrates our ability to bring in overwhelming firepower from the sea, whether it comes from below the surface, on the surface or from the air,” the US Navy Captain said in a statement. Steven DeMoss, Commodore of Destroyer Squad 15. “We have this capability in every setting in the world, and we can use these weapons wherever and whenever we choose.”
On Sunday, the guided-missile cruiser USS Antietam simulated an attack on island targets with a Tomahawk cruise missile. “This exercise demonstrates the Antietam’s ability to track, target and confront threats to protect peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” said a statement from the United States Navy.
China, meanwhile, will resume live-fire exercises this week, according to the Global Times, and those exercises will continue until October 1.
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