Taiwan vows retaliation amid threats by China

Warns Beijing of its right to act in self-defence and counter attack

TAIPEI: Taiwan said yesterday its armed forces have the right to self-defence and counter attack amid “harassment and threats”, in an apparent warning to China, which last week sent numerous jets across the mid-line of the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had “clearly defined” procedures for the island’s first response amid “high frequency of harassment and threats from the enemy’s warships and aircraft this year”.

It said Taiwan had the right to

“self-defence and to counter attack” and that it followed the guideline of “no escalation of conflict and no triggering incidents”.

Taiwan would not provoke but was also “not afraid of the enemy”, it added.

Meanwhile in Beijing, China ramped up its rhetoric over Taiwan yesterday, describing any support for its independence as “doomed to fail”, and threatened retaliation against US diplomatic visits to the island.

The foreign ministry said at a press conference yesterday that the envoys’ visits were a “political provocation” and threatened retaliation.

“China will take appropriate countermeasures, including targeting relevant individuals,” said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin.

He warned the US actions will “further damage the cooperation” between the US and China.

Wang added that any support for Taiwan’s independence is a “dead end... doomed to fail”.

Tensions have sharply spiked in recent months between Taipei and Beijing, which claims democratically run Taiwan as its own territory, to be taken by force if needed.

Multiple China aircraft flew across the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait and into the island’s air defence identification zone on Friday and Saturday, prompting Taiwan to scramble jets to intercept and President Tsai Ing-wen to call China a threat to the region.

The drills took place last week as Beijing expressed anger at the visit of a senior US official to Taipei.

Yesterday, the official China Daily newspaper said in an editorial that the US was trying to use Taiwan to contain China but nobody should underestimate its determination to assert its sovereignty over the island.

“The US should not be blinkered in its desperation to contain the peaceful rise of China and indulge in the US addiction to its hegemony,” it said. – Agencies