Taiwan slams ‘evil neighbor’ China

TAIPEI (AFP) – Taiwan blasted its “evil neighbor next door” yesterday after China encircled the island with a series of huge military drills that were condemned by the United States and other Western allies.

During military exercises on Thursday and Friday, China fired ballistic missiles and deployed both fighter jets and warships around Taiwan.

The People’s Liberation Army declared multiple no-go danger zones around Taiwan, straddling major shipping lanes in the world and at some points coming within 20 kilometers of the island’s shores.

Beijing has said the exercises will continue until midday Sunday, and Taipei reported that Chinese fighter jets and ships crossed the “median line” that runs down the Taiwan Strait on Friday morning.

”As of 11 a.m., multiple batches of Chinese warplanes and warships conducted exercises around the Taiwan Strait and crossed the median line of the strait,” Taipei’s defense ministry said in a statement.

The median line is an unofficial, but once largely adhered-to border that runs down the middle of the Taiwan Strait, which separates Taiwan and China.

Chinese incursions have become more common since Beijing declared in 2020 that the unofficial border no longer existed.

AFP journalists on the picturesque Chinese island of Pingtan saw a fighter jet flying overhead, prompting tourists to snap photos as it flew along the coast.

A Chinese military vessel was also visible sailing through the Taiwan Strait, they added.

Beijing has insisted its war games are a “necessary” response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, but Washington countered that China’s leaders had “chosen to overreact.”