The Chinese military drills around Taiwan on Monday were shorter and smaller in scale than similar drills in May, but still backfired, based on the reaction of the international community, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday.
He said China’s “Joint Sword-2024B” military drills showed that Beijing had a very different interpretation of President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day speech than most other nations.
While most of the world saw Lai’s address as “moderate, practical and rational,” the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) saw it as provocative and used it as an excuse to launch Monday’s exercises, Tsai said on the sidelines of a legislative session.
Photo: CNA
“The Chinese communists’ military exercise has created a negative effect in that it made the international community more supportive of Taiwan,” Tsai said.
Citing the US reaction, Tsai said the US Department of Defense issued a statement which he described as “extremely rare and strong-worded” in denouncing the latest People’s Liberation Army (PLA) drills.
The Pentagon statement said the PLA’s military operation was “irresponsible, disproportionate and destabilizing.”
Tsai told lawmakers that the PLA also engaged in large-scale cognitive warfare by spreading false information online during Monday’s drills.
One example was a post on PTT, the nation’s largest online bulletin board system, claiming that a liquefied natural gas tanker was unable to dock at Taichung Harbor after being stopped by Chinese warships, he said.
In an attempt to spread fear among Taiwanese, the post warned that once tankers were unable to enter Taiwan, Taiwan could face an energy shortage, Tsai said, adding that state-run CPC Corp, Taiwan immediately denounced the post as a rumor.
Meanwhile, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) yesterday said that China would never commit to renouncing the use of force against Taiwan.
“We are willing to strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification with the utmost sincerity and endeavor, but we will never commit ourselves to renouncing the use of force,” TAO spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) told a regular news conference in Beijing.
However, that is aimed at the interference of “external forces” and the very small number of Taiwanese separatists, not the vast majority of people in Taiwan, Chen said.
“No matter how many troops Taiwan has and how many weapons it acquires, and no matter whether external forces intervene or not, if it [Taiwan] dares to take risks, it will lead to its own destruction,” he said.
Lai in his speech said that China has no right to represent Taiwan, but that Taiwan was willing to work with the government in Beijing to combat challenges such as climate change, striking both a firm and a conciliatory tone which Taiwanese officials said was a show of goodwill.
Chen said Lai had stuck to his “stubborn separatist position,” and that “there was no goodwill to speak of.”
Chen said Lai’s speech was a harmful “Taiwanese independence manifesto.”
“He [Lai] escalated provocations against the ‘one China principle,’ further entrenching the ‘two-state fallacy,’” Chen said.
Describing Lai as a “Taiwanese independence worker” and a “peace disruptor,” Chen also defended Beijing’s countermeasures as just actions by a sovereign state aimed at safeguarding its territorial integrity, and ensuring peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Separately, the Mainland Affairs Council on Tuesday rejected the TAO’s earlier negative remarks about Lai’s National Day address.
The council said it is clear that the CCP views the Republic of China as an illegitimate regime and seeks to prevent its continued existence.
Beijing’s positions, including emphasizing the “one China principle” and the so-called “1992 consensus,” are aimed at turning Taiwan into another Hong Kong, the council said.
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