The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) appointment of two generals from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command to its Central Military Commission signals that Beijing is heightening its military preparedness regarding Taiwan, a report said.
A Mainland Affairs Council report published last week said that He Weidong (何衛東) and Miao Hua (苗華), who both served in the Eastern Theater Command, were appointed as vice chairmen in the seven-person commission at last month’s 20th National Congress of the CCP.
At the congress, Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Xi Jinping (習近平) vowed to build China into a powerful nation with “Chinese modernization” that underlined national security and science education, the council said in its Third-Quarter Report on the Situation in Mainland China.
Photo: Chung Li-hua, Taipei Times
Xi said he would institute a system to put the heads of the Central Military Commission at the highest command level to lead the country, it said.
Following joint exercises between the PLA Air Force and the Royal Thai Air Force in August, China would seek to normalize military exercises with ASEAN members, it said.
The report said that the CCP added anti-Taiwanese independence language to its congress report, quoting it as saying that “solving Taiwan problems and realizing the complete unification is China’s historical mission,” and that Beijing “will never promise to give up the use of force.”
China would continue to push for more economic cooperation across the Taiwan Strait in the hopes of achieving unification through integration, while continuing military threats and attempts to suppress Taiwan on the international stage, the report said.
The national congress report emphasized the importance of China’s autonomy in foreign affairs and opposition to foreign intervention in its domestic affairs, the council’s report said.
The CCP document also criticized the US’ Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors and Science Act, which it said positioned China as “a competitor that reshapes international order.”
The council report also addressed China’s economic situation.
It said that China’s 3 percent economic growth in the first three quarters of the year, languishing housing market, rising fiscal deficit, record-high consumer price index and high unemployment rate led international institutions to lower their economic growth forecast for the county this year from 3.9 to 2.7 percent.
China’s strict “zero COVID-19” restrictions and electricity rationing have also stirred discontent among its citizens, the report said.
Beijing has asked social media personalities to promote the CCP’s ideology and “the shared consciousness toward the motherland of the Chinese people at home and abroad,” it said.
Regarding Xinjiang, Beijing continues to emphasize economic development and attempts to implement strict social controls, while in Hong Kong and Macau it has reiterated Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula of governance, it said.
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
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