China is conducting live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait to simulate a “lockdown” of the island. Reprisals after the visit of the Taiwanese president to the United States.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense announces that it has detected 11 Chinese warships and 59 aircraft around the island. The Chinese maneuvers, which started on Saturday for three days, will reach their climax on Monday April 10 in the Taiwan Strait. They are a reaction to the meeting, last Wednesday, of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen with the Speaker of the American House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
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Live ammunition drills
Live fire is carried out off the Chinese island of Pingtan, a small archipelago of 450,000 inhabitants. The site was chosen symbolically: it is the closest point from China to the Taiwanese coast, located about 130 kilometers from the coast of Taiwan and 190 km from the capital. taipei. The operation began at 7 a.m. Monday morning and is due to end at 8 p.m.
If the army does not give any details on the nature of these real shots, on the other hand, the Chinese central television announces that fighter planes simulate strikes on targets qualified as important in Taiwan. The television specifies that the planes carrying out these strikes carry live ammunition. The Chinese Navy’s second aircraft carrier, the Shandong, is also in the area.
Objective: complete the territory
The objective, according to official terms, is to simulate a “closure” of this territory of 23 million inhabitants. A very operational dimension intended to increase the pressure on the separatist government in power in Taipei. This is not the first time that China has conducted military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait. Those of last summer were even much more impressive after American Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei.
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In the name of the one-China principle, the communist regime considers any official contact between Taiwan and the United States unbearable. It is a “red line”, and it is for this reason that each time Beijing provides a firm and visible response. But China has never gone beyond these maneuvers: it has no real interest in embarking on an armed conflict with hazardous consequences that could hit the Chinese economy hard.
So, in the meantime, the regime maintains a sort of ambiguity about Taiwan. Xi Jinping said last October that he wanted to favor a peaceful solution, but without ever, he said, renouncing the use of force and failing to speak with the Taiwanese leaders. China hopes instead to convince the population of the island. In a recent charm offensive, Beijing promised that after reunification the island could retain its way of life, with a high degree of autonomy. The Chinese see reunification with Taiwan as a top priority, but have not yet set any official deadline.
Peace in the Taiwan Strait and the island’s independence are incompatible, the Chinese government warned on Monday, on the third day of military exercises in this area. “Taiwan independence and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are mutually exclusive“said Wang Wenbin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during a regular briefing.If we want to protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, we must firmly oppose any form of separatism for Taiwan independence.“, he added.