Tsai presides over naval drill

Japan to bolster patrols near disputed isles

SUAO, Taiwan, April 14, (Agencies): Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen presided over a military drill by the selfruled island’s navy on Friday for the first time since she took office in 2016, a day after diplomatic rival China held a large-scale naval display.

Taiwan’s drill did not involve live fire. Beijing announced plans to hold live-fire military drills in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its sacred territory, under its “one China” policy, and Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring what it sees as a wayward province under its control.

On Thursday, President Xi Jinping presided over the Chinese navy’s largest-ever military display, state media reported, the country’s latest show of force in the disputed South China Sea.

Tsai on Friday boarded a warship off Suao on the east coast to observe the Taiwan drill, which the defence ministry said aimed to test the military’s rapid response capability to defend Taiwan.

“I believe our nationals should feel very confident about our army’s determination to defend and protect our country,” Tsai, who is chief commander of Taiwan’s armed forces, said aboard the warship after the drill.

Asked by a reporter if the event was aimed at competing with Xi, Tsai urged people “not to over-read” the situation, saying her inspection was just the first of a series.

The army could safeguard Taiwan, she said, adding that her trip to the southern African nation of Swaziland, set from Tuesday to April 21, would not be affected by China’s plans for live-fire drills.

Taiwan’s policy-making Mainland Affairs Council has said China’s drills would not go down well with Taiwanese people and urged China to engage in rational communication to ensure peace across the Strait.

China’s hostility has risen since Tsai’s election, as it suspects she wants to push for formal independence, which would cross a red line for Communist Party leaders in Beijing.

It voiced opposition this week to the

Cambodia’s self-exiled opposition leader urged Japan, his nation’s biggest donor, on Friday to use its leverage and convince his nation’s autocratic government to ensure that July elections are democratic.

Sam Rainsy, whose Cambodia National Rescue Party has been banned, said he’s hopeful that Japan and its business community can send a message to Prime Minister Hun Sen that he needs to restore democracy or face isolation.

Sam Rainsy is in Tokyo to meet with Japanese business and political officials to seek support for his return amid growing democratic United States selling weapons to Taiwan, after the Trump administration approved a marketing licence required by American manufacturers to sell technology to Taiwan that would allow submarines to be built.

The licence was an important step and a spur for Taiwan’s plans to build its own naval vessels, Tsai said on Friday.

China’s state television broadcaster cited China’s Taiwan Affairs Office as saying that Beijing had firm will and the ability to “thwart any kind of Taiwan independence separatist plot and action, and safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity”.

The nationalist state-run Global Times newspaper warned in a commentary on Taiwan’s drills that the island’s leaders were making a gamble they couldn’t afford to lose.

“The mainland has abundant capability to take back the Taiwan authorities’ bargaining chips one at a time until it deals a decisive blow to ‘Taiwan independence’,” the newspaper said.

China has claimed Taiwan since defeated Nationalist forces fled to the island in 1949 after losing the civil war with the Communists.

China announced it will hold livefire military exercises in the Taiwan Strait amid heightened tensions over increased American support for Taiwan’s government.

The announcement coincided with President Xi Jinping speaking on the importance of Chinese naval power while attending a massive fleet review Thursday in the South China Sea off the coast of Hainan province.

“The mission of building a mighty people’s navy has never been more urgent than it is today,” Xi, dressed in army fatigues, said in remarks on the helicopter deck of one of China’s most advanced destroyers. “Strive to make the people’s navy a first-rate world navy.”

State media said the fleet review included 48 ships, among them China’s sole operating aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, along with 76 helicopters, fighter jets and bombers, and more than 10,000 personnel, making it

setbacks ahead of the July 29 polls.

“Japan has strong leverage to help restore the democratic process,” he told reporters in Tokyo. The US and European nations have suspended financial support for the upcoming elections and Japan is the only Western bloc nation that maintains a good relationship with the Hun Sen regime, he said. “If Japan withdraws, Hun Sen will be totally isolated and Cambodia will be really in trouble.” Hun Sen has held power for more than three decades and declared his intention to remain for at least two more five-year terms. the largest since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

The navy began three days of exercises off Hainan on Wednesday, but ended them a day early on Thursday, the provincial maritime safety administration said.

No explanation was given for the curtailment of the drills or the Taiwan Strait exercise, and the Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to questions. The maritime safety authority in the coastal province of Fujian said the one-day Taiwan Strait drill will be held next Wednesday.

Taiwan’s defense ministry responded with a statement saying the exercises appeared to be part of scheduled annual drills, and that they were closely monitoring the situation and fully capable of responding. “Citizens please feel at ease,” the statement said.

TOKYO:

Also:

Japan will beef up airborne patrols of disputed islands in the East China Sea, an official said Friday, in response to increased Chinese activity in the area.

New crew members will operate two extra jets that will be deployed in the next 12 months to strengthen patrols around the Senkaku Islands, according to a spokesman from the Japan Coast Guard.

“We’ll boost our aviation crew by bringing in 60 more members,” the spokesman told AFP.

Japan will deploy two Falcon 2000LXS jets this fiscal year and one more plane next year to allow a “24hour patrol system” to monitor the disputed islands, known in China as the Diaoyus.

The move comes after Japan spotted a Chinese nuclear-powered submarine in disputed waters early this year.

The uninhabited islets are at the centre of a festering row between Tokyo and Beijing, which is also involved in a widening dispute with several Southeast Asian countries over islands in the South China Sea.

The Japanese government has long complained about China’s routine dispatch of coast guard ships to waters surrounding the islands.

Japan, which has contributed to Cambodia’s peace-building and reconstruction, is seen as having responded somewhat mildly to the government’s crackdown on the media and persecution of opposition politicians. (AP)

US inspects Vanuatu wharf:

The United States has conducted a survey of a Chinese-funded wharf in Vanuatu ahead of a military exercise by US forces planned for the South Pacific later this year, the US Marine Corps said on Saturday.

The wharf had been the subject of reports in Australia’s Fairfax Media that China wanted to establish a permanent military base in the Pacific island nation.

Both Vanuatu and China denied the report amid heightened tension with the United States over China’s activity in the South China Sea.

US Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Curtis L. Hill told Reuters by email that a small contingent of Marines from 1 Marine Expeditionary Force based in California had conducted a site survey in preparation for the exercise that US forces will hold.

“The site survey was conducted due to the likely participation of a Military Sealift Command support vessel in the exercise,” he said.

Vanuatu, about 2,000 km (1,200 miles) east of northern Australia, was home to a key US Navy base during World War Two that helped beat back the Japanese army as it advanced through the Pacific toward Australia.

There is heightened interest in the wharf in Luganville town because it could be big enough to allow warships to dock at it. Its primary use is to cater for cargo vessels and ferries. (RTRS)