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BEIJING: China began combat drills near the Taiwan Strait on Friday (September 18), the same day a senior US official launched high-level meetings in Taipei, a move that has angered Beijing.
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.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Friday’s drills, which he did not elaborate on, were taking place near the Taiwan Strait and involved the eastern theater command of the People’s Liberation Army.
LEE: China says military exercises near Taiwan were a ‘necessary action’
“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.
Ren also warned that the Chinese military had “sufficient capacity” to counter any external threat or challenge from Taiwan separatists.
Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory and resists any recognition of Taiwan, which has been ruled separately from China since the end of a civil war in 1949.
Ren accused the United States of “frequently causing trouble” over Taiwan, which he said “is purely China’s internal affairs and we will not tolerate any outside interference.”
Trying to “use Taiwan to control China” or “rely on foreigners to rebuild itself” is an illusion and is doomed to become a dead end, he added.
“Those who play with fire will burn,” he said.
TAIWAN SCRAMBLES JETS
According to the Taipei Defense Ministry, 18 Chinese aircraft, including bombers and fighters, entered the Southwest Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) on Friday and also crossed the so-called middle line dividing the Taiwan Strait.
The ministry said Taiwan’s armed forces “scrambled fighters and deployed an air defense missile system to monitor activities.”
The ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese jets crossing the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, which normally avoid passing fighter jets on both sides.
READ: China says it will give a ‘necessary response’ to a US official’s visit to Taiwan
China’s announcement came as US Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach began the first full day of his visit to Taiwan quietly, with no open media events on his schedule. He is the highest-ranking State Department official he has visited in 40 years.
He will meet with President Tsai Ing-wen later in the day, and on Saturday he will attend a memorial service for the late President Lee Teng-hui.
China had threatened to provide a “necessary response” to the 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 it 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. The Chinese UN mission said it had made “severe protests” about the meeting.
