‘Russia must be stopped to prevent all Europe war’
MISSILES LAUNCHED IN BID TO INTIMIDATE TAIWAN
CHINA took tensions with Taiwan to the brink of war yesterday with a huge display of firepower designed to intimidate its tiny neighbour.
The communist giant deployed more than 100 warplanes and fired live missiles into the sea off Taiwan’s coast in its biggest ever military exercise.
China’s chilling muscle-flexing was in revenge for top US politician Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan’s capital Taipei to show solidarity with the isolated island democracy.
Taiwan fired flares to drive off four Chinese drones that flew over nearby islands and 10 warships that approached its coast. By midday, warships from both sides remained in close proximity.
Taiwan also scrambled jets and deployed missile systems to warn off 22 Chinese fighters which crossed the Taiwan Strait.
A Taiwanese source said: “They continue to harass us.”
China’s military later confirmed multiple firings of conventional missiles in waters off Taiwan as part of exercises set to run until Sunday.
Japan immediately protested that five missiles appeared to land in its economic zone amid fears of a wider regional conflict.
But China’s defence ministry blamed the US. A spokesman said: “The US-Taiwan collusion and provocation will only push Taiwan towards the abyss of disaster, bringing catastrophe to Taiwan compatriots.”
Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen responded defiantly: “Taiwan will never be knocked down by challenges. We are rational and not provocative, but we will be firm and not shirk.”
Taiwan said 11 Chinese Dongfeng ballistic missiles had been fired in nearby waters – for the first time since 1996.
It insisted the drills violated United
Nations rules, invaded its space and threatened free navigation.
Taiwan has been self-ruled since 1949, when Mao Tse-Tung’s communists took power in Beijing after defeating Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang nationalists.
Defiance
The KMT-led government then retreated to the island. China insists Taiwan is part of its territory.
Mrs Pelosi (82), Speaker of the US House of Represenatives, made the trip in defiance of warnings from China which says it has the right to take Taiwan by force.
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi’s visit “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational”.
THE war in Ukraine is Europe’s most dangerous moment since World War II and Russia must be stopped, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday warned.
The alliance’s chief said Western allies must prepare to keep sending arms to Ukraine’s military for a long time and he vowed they will go to war if Russia encroaches into NATO territory.
Mr Stoltenberg, speaking in Norway, said: “It’s in our interest that this type of aggressive policy does not succeed.
“What happens in Ukraine is terrible but it would be much worse if there was a war between Russia and NATO.”
He warned: “This is the most dangerous situation in Europe since World War Two.
“If President Putin even thinks of doing something similar to a NATO country as he has done to Georgia, Moldova or
Ukraine, then all of NATO will be involved.
“This is not just an attack on Ukraine, an independent democratic nation, it’s also an attack on our values and the world order we want.”
The war has led Finland and Sweden to seek
NATO membership, with the request so far ratified by 23 of the 30 member states, including the US.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described the pressure his troops are under in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine as “hell”.
Meanwhile, eight people were killed by Russian artillery shelling yesterday in the town of Toretsk in Donetsk.