China’s drills put Taiwan on notice
Live-fire sea exercises are seen as a warning against independence.
TAIPEI, Taiwan — China carried out live-fire military drills Wednesday in what was seen as a warning to Taiwan of the consequences of pursuing independence from Beijing.
Artillery rounds were fired in a zone about six miles off the coast of southeastern China and 108 miles from Taiwan, a Ministry of National Defense spokesman in Taipei said.
China intends for the 16hour drills to discourage Taiwanese from seeking legal independence from the communist leadership in Beijing, analysts say. Taiwan held its own military drills late last week.
“They will try to use it as way to influence the people of Taiwan,” said Lo Chihcheng, a ruling party lawmaker in the island’s parliament. “This is sort of public opinion warfare rather than a military threat.”
China claims democratic Taiwan as part of its territory, but the two have been ruled separately since the Chinese civil war of the 1940s. Taiwanese government surveys show that more than 80% of Taiwanese oppose unification with China, though some are more comfortable with today’s de facto autonomy than with legal independence.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman, Ma Xiaoguang, said Friday in connection with the drills that his government was ready to strike down any push for independence.
“I’d like to emphasize again that we have resolute willingness, ample confidence and plenty of ability to defeat any kind of ‘Taiwan independence’ and defend our country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said in a statement.
That comment “intends to intimidate Taiwan,” the Mainland Affairs Council of the Taiwanese government said in a statement Monday. Taiwan will “never give in to the threats of the Beijing authorities,” it said.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen rejects Beijing’s idea that both sides belong to a single China. The two governments have not spoken formally since she took office in 2016. Her Democratic Progressive Party includes senior members who support legal independence.
Since Tsai started her term, China has also sent an aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait, flown military aircraft near the island and blocked it from participating in the United Nations, officials in Taipei say. China also held a live-fire exercise near Taiwan two years ago.
Wednesday’s drills came during Tsai’s four-day trip to Swaziland. The African nation is one of 20 that recognize Taiwan diplomatically, compared with the more than 170 that instead recognize China. The Defense Ministry in Taipei said Taiwanese people should not be alarmed about the drills.
The exercises may be aimed as well at curbing further ties between Taiwan and the U.S., said Yun Sun, East Asia Program co-director at the Stimson Center think tank in Washington.