China has been staging large-scale joint war games featuring mock beach landings, helicopter assaults and tank battles along its east coast facing Taiwan, just days before the inauguration of president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense yesterday said that the air, land and sea drills are aimed at “testing and upgrading the ability to respond to security threats and complete military missions.”
The drills are “not aimed at any specific target and relevant persons shouldn’t read too much into it,” the ministry said.
The statement, issued in a question-and-answer format, did not mention Taiwan.
The military drills are a sign of the sort of disruptions and threats that would descend upon the cross-strait relationship if Tsai defies Beijing’s demands over the “one China principle,” Xiamen University Taiwan Research Institute deputy director Li Fei (李非) said.
“The exercises are a message to the Taiwan independence forces and can be regarded as a warning that any indications of a movement toward independence will meet with repression,” Li said.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has endorsed the so-called “1992 consensus” — which refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means — and signed a series of agreements with China during its eight years in power.
Tsai has said she wants such contacts to continue uninterrupted, but has declined to voice her support for the consensus.
While military action is considered extremely risky, Beijing could choose to retaliate against Tsai by further limiting the nation’s participation in international organizations, luring away its remaining diplomatic allies, and curtailing trade and tourist exchanges.
China last staged military drills and missile launches in 1995 and 1996 in a bid to intimidate Taiwanese voters ahead of the first direct presidential elections. The effort was seen as an abject failure that further alienated Taiwanese.
Chinese media said the latest drills involved mock landing operations, and the use of attack helicopters and tanks. The largest drills were carried out by the People’s Liberation Army’s 31st Group Army in Xiamen, the China Daily said.
The 31st Group Army also held live-firing exercises in January, days after Tsai’s election.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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