[ad_1]
US Under Secretary of State Keith Krach, center, gestures after disembarking from a plane as he arrives at the Taipei Air Force Base Airport, Taiwan, Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020. Krach is in Taiwan on Thursday for the second visit by a high-level US official in two months, prompting a stern warning and threat of possible retaliation from China. (Pool photo via AP Photo)
TAIPEI / BEIJING – Taiwan launched fighter jets on Friday as several Chinese jets flew over the island, including crossing the sensitive mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, in escalating tensions on the same day that a senior US official began meeting in Taipei. .
Earlier on Friday, China’s Defense Ministry announced the start of mock combat near the Taiwan Strait, denouncing what it called collusion between the island claimed by China and the United States.
US Undersecretary of Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the highest-ranking State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades.
Beijing has watched with growing alarm the increasingly close relationship between Taipei and Washington, and has intensified military exercises near the island, including two days of massive air and sea drills last week.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said 18 Chinese jets were involved on Friday, a much larger number than Taiwan had previously announced for such encounters.
“Sep. 18, two H-6 bombers, eight J-16 fighters, four J-10 fighters and four J-11 fighters crossed the middle line of the TaiwanStrait and entered southwestern Taiwan’s ADIZ,” the ministry said in a statement. in English on Twitter.
“ROCAF coded the fighters and deployed an air defense missile system to monitor activities,” he added, referring to the Taiwanese air force.
The ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese planes and their crossing of the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait, which normally avoid passing fighter jets on both sides.
Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper said Taiwan’s air force planes flew 17 times on Friday morning for four hours, warning the Chinese air force to stay away.
It also showed an image of missiles loaded onto an F-16 at Hualien Air Base on the east coast of Taiwan.
In Beijing, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Friday’s drills, about which he did not elaborate, involved the eastern theater command of the People’s Liberation Army.
“They are a reasonable and necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ren said.
Taiwan is a purely internal Chinese affair that does not admit foreign interference, he added.
“Recently, the authorities of the United States and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have intensified their collusion, often creating unrest,” Ren said, referring to the ruling Taiwan party.
Trying to “use Taiwan to control China” or “rely on foreigners to rebuild” is an illusion and is doomed to be a dead end, he added.
“Those who play with fire will burn,” he said.
Hu Xijin, editor of the China state-backed Global Times tabloid, wrote on his Weibo microblog that the drills were a preparation for an attack on Taiwan should the need arise, and that they were a valuable experience that enabled collection. intelligence on Taiwan’s defensive systems. .
“If the US Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense visits Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army fighters should fly over the island of Taiwan and exercise directly in the skies above it,” he added.
China had threatened to provide a “necessary response” to Krach’s trip, straining the already poor ties between Beijing and Taipei and Washington. Sino-US relations have plummeted ahead of the November US presidential elections.
Chinese fighter jets briefly crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait last month when U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar was in Taipei, and last week China conducted two days of large-scale drills off the southwest coast of Taiwan.
The United States, like most countries, only has official ties with China, not with Taiwan, although Washington is the island’s main arms supplier and the largest international sponsor.
This week, the US ambassador to the United Nations had lunch with Taiwan’s top envoy in New York. China’s UN mission said it had made “tough statements” about the meeting.
Read next
EDITOR’S SELECTION
MOST READ
Subscribe to INQUIRER PLUS to get access to The Philippine Daily Inquirer and more than 70 other titles, share up to 5 gadgets, listen to the news, download from 4am and share articles on social media. Call 896 6000.
[ad_2]
