China wrapped up its biggest-ever military maneuvers around Taiwan on Sunday, an angry reaction to the visit to the island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which sent relations between Beijing and Washington plummeting. For years.
Number three in the US power hierarchy, Ms Pelosi sparked Chinese fury with her visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, the largest by a US lawmaker to Taiwan in 25 years. Beijing, which considers this territory as one of its provinces, reacted by suspending a series of Sino-American discussions and cooperation, in particular on climate change and defense.
The Chinese military has also begun the most impressive military exercises around Taiwan in its history, sending fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles in what analysts consider a mock blockade and invasion of the island.
On Sunday, it carried out “joint practical exercises at sea and in the airspace surrounding the island of Taiwan, as planned”, said its Eastern Command, which oversees China’s eastern maritime space – and therefore Taiwan. .
These were aimed at “testing joint firepower in the field and long-range air strike capabilities”, he added.
New exercises
These vast maneuvers were to be completed by midday, but neither Beijing nor Taipei have confirmed that they are over. China also plans to carry out new “live-fire” exercises until August 15 in the Yellow Sea, which separates China from the Korean peninsula.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense confirmed that China had deployed “planes, ships and drones” around the strait, “to simulate attacks against the main island of Taiwan and against boats in our waters”.
The ministry counted 66 planes and 14 ships operating in the strait that separates mainland China from Taiwan, 22 of which crossed the median line, which bisects this maritime space.
Drawn unilaterally by the United States during the Cold War, this line has never been recognized by Beijing.
China also sent a drone over the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, located about ten kilometers from the Chinese city of Xiamen, forcing the Taiwanese army to fire flares, according to local authorities.
Taiwan’s transport ministry said that as of noon, six of the seven “temporary danger zones” that China had asked airlines to avoid had returned to normal, a sign that the exercises were coming to an end.
“The flights and navigations concerned can gradually resume,” he said.
The seventh zone, in waters east of Taiwan, will remain to be bypassed until Monday at 10:00 a.m. local time, according to the same source.
On the Chinese side, the Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for confirmation of the end of the maneuvers.
To prove how close it had come to the Taiwanese coast, the Chinese military on Saturday released a photo it said it took from one of its warships, showing a Taiwanese navy building a few hundreds of meters only.
This shot may be the closest to the Taiwanese coastline ever taken by mainland Chinese forces.
The Chinese military has also made public the video of one of its fighter pilots showing, from its cockpit in full flight, the coast and the mountains of Taiwan.
According to Chinese state television CCTV, missiles flew over Taiwan this week during maneuvers around the island – which would be a first.
On the Taiwanese side, Prime Minister Su Tseng-chang said on Sunday that China was “using military action in a barbaric way” to disrupt peace in the Taiwan Strait.
“We call on the Chinese government not to brandish its military force, not to show its muscles everywhere to endanger the peace of the region,” he told reporters.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered that the maneuvers threatened “the region and even the world”.
Separately, an anonymous editorial published by CCTV on Sunday suggested that further “regular” drills would be held on the eastern side of the median line.
Warning
Several experts explained to AFP that these maneuvers served as a warning: the Chinese army now seems able to set up a total blockade of the island and prevent American forces from coming to its aid.
“In some areas, its capabilities may even exceed those of the United States,” notes Grant Newsham, a former US Navy officer and researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
If “the Americans and the Japanese do not intervene, things will be very difficult for Taiwan,” he said.
The scale of the maneuvers and Beijing’s decision to withdraw from crucial bilateral climate and defense dialogues have triggered a shower of condemnation from the United States and its allies.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denounced Saturday in Manila the “total disproportion” of the Chinese reaction.
China should not ‘hostage’ talks on issues such as climate change because it ‘doesn’t punish the United States, but the whole world’, he added.