PLA conducts more Taiwan drills
CHINA’S military said it carried out more exercises near Taiwan yesterday as a US delegation visited the island.
A five-member United States team, led by Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, visited the region on Sunday on the heels of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip in early August, which drew strong condemnation from China, including days of live-fire military drills around Taiwan Island.
The Chinese military unit responsible for the area adjacent to Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, said it had organized multi-service joint combat readiness patrols and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan yesterday.
The exercises were “a stern deterrent to the United States and Taiwan continuing to play political tricks and undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” it added.
The Defense Ministry said in a separate statement that the lawmakers’ trip infringed on China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and “fully exposes the true face of the United States as a spoiler and a spoiler of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to train and prepare for war, resolutely defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will resolutely crush any form of ‘Taiwan independence’ separatism and foreign interference.”
The theater command said the exercises took place near Taiwan’s Penghu islands, which are in the Taiwan Strait and are home to a major air base, and showed close up video of the islands taken by a Chinese air force aircraft.
The US lawmakers, led by Senator Markey, “overestimated themselves and attempted to challenge the one-China principle,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing, adding that their attempts were “doomed to fail.”
The visit blatantly violated the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiques, violated China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and sent a wrong signal to the “Taiwan Independence” forces, he said.
Noting that the one-China principle is the consensus of the international community and the basic norm governing international relations, Wang said that “the one-China principle is also the political foundation for the establishment of diplomatic ties and the growth of China-US relations,” Wang added.
China once again urges the US side to abide by the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques, properly handle Taiwan-related issues and stop hollowing out and distorting the oneChina principle, so as to avoid further damage to China-US relations, he insisted.
Earlier yesterday, Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, responded that the PLA will continue to train and prepare for war and crush any form of “Taiwan independence” secession and foreign interference attempts.
“Taiwan is China’s Taiwan, and the Taiwan question does not allow any foreign interference. We are warning the US and Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party that ‘using Taiwan to contain China’ is doomed to fail, and ‘relying on the US to seek Taiwan independence’ is self-destructive.”
Ma Xiaoguang, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council, yesterday also voiced strong opposition to the US congressional delegation’s visit.
“This erroneous act is a serious violation of the one-China principle and the stipulations of the three China-US joint communiques,” said Ma, adding that Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party authorities will receive “more severe blows” if they continue banking on external forces to seek “Taiwan independence.”