China concludes military drills around Taiwan, calls it a 'success'

Beijing: Calling its week-long military drills around Taiwan, which started in retaliation to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the self-ruled island, a ‘success’, China on Wednesday concluded the exercises and warned to organise regular combat patrols to enforce its One-China policy.

Initially, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced the war exercises in the busy Taiwan Strait from 4 to 7 August, the day after Pelosi who is the highest-ranking US leader to have visited Taiwan in 25 years, left Taipei after high-level meetings. It later kept extending them, keeping the breakaway island on tenterhooks.

The Chinese military exercises involved hundreds of warplanes, and dozens of naval ships, including an aircraft carrier group with a nuclear submarine in tow, amid assertions by the official media here that such war games in the busy Taiwan Strait will be a new normal.

 The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement on Wednesday that the joint military operations around the Taiwan island have been completed successfully.

But the PLA will organise regular combat patrols in the Taiwan region and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity after successfully completing its recent training exercises around Taiwan, Senior Colonel Shi Yi said.

More from World

Netanyahu accuses Hamas leaders of derailing ceasefire, says eliminating them in Qatar could end Gaza war $165bn in tariff revenue: Stopgap relief or legal mirage for America’s budget crisis?

 The state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Shi as saying that the Eastern Command will keep a close eye on the changing situation in the Taiwan Strait, carry out training and war preparation, regularly organise combat-ready police patrols across Taiwan Strait, and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.

The drills involved forces drawn from all wings of the PLA in the Taiwan Strait virtually laying siege to the breakaway island which Beijing claims as part of its mainland, sparking global concerns of possible military assault by China to annex Taiwan.

It now appears that the PLA will organise the drills periodically which the official media reports here say is an apparent change in the status quo of maintaining peace and tranquillity in the Taiwan Strait which separates the mainland from Taiwan.

Impact Shorts

More Shorts

‘The cries of this widow will echo’: In first public remarks, Erika Kirk warns Charlie’s killers they’ve ‘unleashed a fire’

Trump urges Nato to back sanctions on Russia, calls for 50–100% tariffs on China

Despite its claims over Taiwan in the past, China had not militarised the Taiwan Strait, resulting in its flourishing with massive industrialisation and emerging as a major business hub, so much so, that Taiwan’s trade with China is far bigger than its trade with the US.

Many large Taiwanese companies in high-tech industries such as the world’s biggest chipmaker - Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, operate factories in mainland China.

Twenty-five per cent of Taiwan’s USD 448 billion exports went to China in 2021, and the breakaway island was the dominant trade partner holding a $ 134 billion trade balance with China, demonstrating its high-end development.

After Pelosi’s visit, China imposed only token trade sanctions against Taiwan, banning the imports of certain fruits and fish products from Taiwan and export of sand but conspicuously avoided items like semiconductor chips for which Beijing heavily relied on Taipei.

In response to Pelosi’s visit, China suspended a range of defence and military exchanges with the US besides imposing sanctions on Pelosi as part of a slew of countermeasures to protest against her trip to Taipei on Tuesday and Wednesday that infuriated Beijing, which saw it as a violation of the one-China policy.

The countermeasures were necessary warning against the provocations made by the US and “Taiwan independence” separatist forces, the Chinese Ministry of National Defence said on Monday.

China’s foreign ministry has reiterated that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is an inalienable part of the country’s territory.

Pelosi’s visit has worsened the US-China ties which deteriorated in recent years.  After she left, China took retaliatory actions and announced sanctions against her and her immediate family members and cancelled talks with Washington on defence, climate change and a range of other issues.

For its part beleaguered Taiwan went on the offensive, holding its military drills while its Foreign Minister Joseph Wu alleged that Beijing braced for the invasion of the island.

Although China seems to be targeting Taiwan now, its activities around the world have shown that its motivation is far beyond Taiwan including in South Asia, he said.

China is now determined to link the East and South China Seas through the Taiwan Strait so that this entire area becomes its internal waters, Wu said.

Meanwhile, China on Wednesday released a White Paper on Taiwan in which for reunification, it proposed the ‘One country, Two systems’ formula which was applied earlier to Hong Kong without much success.

To realise peaceful reunification, we must acknowledge that the mainland and Taiwan have their own distinct social systems and ideologies. The One Country, Two Systems principle is the most inclusive solution to this problem it said.

The lengthy document, presented in five sections, repeats Beijing’s firm determination to reunite with the island.

“We will tolerate no foreign interference in Taiwan, we will thwart any attempt to divide our country, and we will combine as a mighty force for national reunification and rejuvenation. The historic goal of reuniting our motherland must be realised and will be realised,” it said.

It also underlined that China will “not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all necessary measures. This is to guard against external interference and all separatist activities. In no way does it target our fellow Chinese in Taiwan, it said.

We will only be forced to take drastic measures to respond to the provocation of separatist elements or external forces should they ever cross our red lines, it added.

Read all the Latest News , Trending News , Cricket News , Bollywood News , India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.