China sends warships, jets close to Taiwan as tensions rise
Chinese warships and aircraft conducted military drills in waters near
Taiwan Friday, the island's Defense Ministry said, as tensions escalated in the
region following US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the island this week.
The ministry said Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces crossed
the median line -- the halfway point between the island and mainland China --
in a move it called a "highly provocative act."
The line has previously been an informal but largely respected border of
control between Beijing and Taipei.
Taiwan's military responded with radio warnings and put air patrol
forces, naval ships and shore-based missile systems on alert, the ministry
added.
On Friday, Taiwan's Premier Su Tseng-chang said the island represented
"freedom and democracy," and that "the evil neighbour next door
flexed its muscles on our doorstep and arbitrarily sabotaged (one of) the
busiest waterways in the world with military exercises."
The skies and waters around Taiwan have become a focal point as Beijing
ramps up tensions not only with Taiwan but with neighbouring Japan, which
lodged a formal protest with China after five projectiles landed in Japan's
Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
The missiles were
among a number launched by Beijing Thursday -- some of which flew over Taiwan
-- as Pelosi made her way to Tokyo where she met with Japanese Prime Minister
Fumio Kishida on Friday.
China has previously
fired missiles into waters surrounding Taiwan -- a democratic island of 24
million that the Chinese Communist Party regards as its territory, despite
having never controlled it -- most notably during the Taiwan Strait Crisis in
the 1990s.
But missiles flying
over the island marked a significant escalation, with US officials warning
there may be more to come.
"We anticipated
that China might take steps like this -- in fact, I described them for you in
quite some detail just the other day," John Kirby, a spokesperson for the
US National Security Council, told reporters at the White House on Thursday.
"We also expect that these actions will continue and that the Chinese will
continue to react in the coming days."
A US aircraft carrier
will stay in the area around Taiwan for several more days to "monitor the
situation," Kirby added.
On Friday, Kishida
said the Chinese military drills were "a serious issue concerning the
security of our country and its people" and called for an immediate halt
to the exercises. Japan and the US would "work together to maintain
stability in the Taiwan Strait," he added.
Speaking in Tokyo on Friday, Pelosi accused China of
trying "to isolate Taiwan," pointing to the island's exclusion from
international groups like the World Health Organization.
"They may try to
keep Taiwan from visiting or participating in other places, but they will not
isolate Taiwan by preventing us to travel there," she said.
She added that her
visit to Taiwan had been about maintaining the status quo, not changing it.
Missiles posed 'no
risk'
China started military
drills around the island on Thursday, firing multiple missiles toward waters
near northeastern and southwestern Taiwan the day after Pelosi's departure.
A Chinese military
expert confirmed on state broadcaster CCTV that the conventional missiles flew
over Taiwan's main island, including airspace covered by Taiwanese defence
missiles.
"We hit the
targets under the observation of the US Aegis combat system, which means the
Chinese military has solved the difficulties of hitting long-range targets on
waters," said Maj. Gen. Meng Xiangqing, a professor of strategy at the
National Defense University in Beijing.
In a statement late
Thursday, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said the missiles had travelled above the
atmosphere and therefore posed no risk to the island.
Authorities did not
trigger air raid alerts because they predicted the missiles would land in
waters east of Taiwan, the ministry said. The ministry added it would not
release further information about the missiles' trajectory to protect its
intelligence-gathering capabilities.
Five ballistic
missiles are believed to have landed within Japan's EEZ, including four
believed to have flown over Taiwan, said Japan's Defense Ministry on Thursday.
"This is a serious
problem that concerns Japan's security and the safety of its citizens. We
strongly condemn it," Japan's Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi told reporters
during a news conference.
China also sent 22
warplanes into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Thursday --
all of which crossed the median line.
It follows similar
Chinese incursions a day earlier across the median line.
Thursday's incursions
were made by 12 Su-30 fighter jets, eight J-11 fighter jets, and two J-16
fighter jets, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Later Thursday, the
ministry said it detected four drones flying over "restricted waters"
around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands near mainland China. The ministry
said Taiwan's military fired flares to warn the drones away but did not
specify the type or origin of the devices.
On Friday, a
spokesperson from Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said the government's English
website and the ministry website had both detected a large number of attacks on
Tuesday -- the day Pelosi landed in Taiwan. The IP addresses behind the attacks
came from China and Russia, among other locations, with the intention of
paralyzing the government sites, said the spokesperson.
She added that the
websites were back to normal after emergency repair work, but "massive
attacks with malicious intent .. by overseas hostile forces" continued on
Thursday and Friday.
In a speech on
Thursday, Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen condemned China's military drills as
"irresponsible," saying they marked a "deliberate and continuous
escalation of military threats."
"I must emphasize
that we do not seek to escalate conflicts or provoke disputes, but we will
firmly defend our sovereignty and national safety, as well as safeguard
democracy and freedom," she added.
She also thanked the
Group of Seven, comprised of the world's largest economies, which released a
statement on Wednesday voicing concern over China's live-fire exercises and
urging Beijing not to change the status quo in the region.
The exercises have
also caused disruption to flight and ship schedules, with some international
flights cancelled and vessels urged to use alternative routes for several ports
around the island.
On Tuesday, the
Chinese Defense Ministry said it would hold its exercises in six zones around
Taiwan, warning ships and aircraft to stay out of the areas during the drills.
The Taiwan Strait is a
key trade route for vessels carrying goods between major economies in Northeast
Asia such as China, Japan, South Korea, and the rest of the world.
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