US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was “not worried” about China’s military exercises around Taiwan, while the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and South Korea expressed concern about the operation.
Trump was responding to reporters’ questions about the exercises at a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “hasn’t told me anything about it ... and I don’t believe he’s going to be doing it,” Trump said.
Photo: Tsai Hsin-Han, Reuters
The US president said he was “not worried” about rising tensions around Taiwan, adding that China has been “doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area.”
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday morning announced the start of the two-day exercises, code-named “Justice Mission 2025.”
The PLA announcement indicated that its forces would encircle Taiwan and its outlying islands in the Taiwan Strait.
The IPAC in a statement condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for attempting to normalize military intimidation.
The PLA’s latest military exercises “represent a deliberate escalation of coercive pressure against Taiwan and a dangerous step away from restraint,” it said.
“Such actions are not routine. They signal a trajectory by the CCP that increasingly points toward the normalization of military intimidation and the preparation for conflict,” it said, adding that it heightens the risk of miscalculation and undermines stability in the Taiwan Strait.
The IPAC also called on its members’ governments to respond with urgency and unity, including agreeing on a common deterrence plan that raises the cost of aggression and strengthens collective preparedness.
South Korea called for “peace and stability” in the Strait.
South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Park Il said that Seoul hoped “cross-strait relations will develop peacefully through dialogue and cooperation.”
“We will continue to monitor related developments while prioritizing peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and pursuing diplomatic efforts to promote our national interests,” he added.
China’s military exercises around Taiwan further increase tensions in the region, a European Commission spokesperson said, adding that the EU has a direct interest in the preservation of the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait.
“We oppose any unilateral actions that change the status quo, in particular by force or coercion,” they said.
In Beijing, China reinforced its “red line” on Taiwan, while calling for a new model for its engagement with the US, seeking to cement a recent thaw with the Trump administration.
“We will promote the healthy, stable and sustainable development of China-US relations,” Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said in a speech at a symposium yesterday.
China would remain engaged with the US on the basis of mutual respect, but would not “yield an inch” on core interests, he said.
Wang proposed “a new paradigm of positive interaction” with Washington, even as he reiterated Beijing’s opposition to US arms sales to Taiwan.
He repeated the CCP’s decades-long position that the “reunification of Taiwan” is a mission that must be achieved.
Wang also signaled that Beijing intends to assume a more assertive role on the global stage.
China would be “more active” next year, positioning the country as a stabilizing anchor in a world he described as being at a “turbulent crossroads,” he said.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
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