China’s provocations of Taiwan using “gray zone” tactics and military exercises have intensified regional tensions and shown that Beijing is the “troublemaker” threatening peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, officials said yesterday.
Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) and Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) made the comments a day after China launched what Beijing called “joint combat readiness patrols.”
The “troublemaker” description follows President William Lai’s (賴清德) recent public remarks in which he designated China as a “foreign adversary.” Beijing has previously called Taiwan a “troublemaker” in cross-strait relations.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Monday described the movements of Chinese aircraft and ships as “military exercises” in response to what it said is Lai promoting Taiwanese independence and separatism, and because of foreign interference.
The relatively large-scale patrols included more than two dozen Chinese military aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and dozens more flying into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in collaboration with Chinese naval vessels.
Asked to distinguish between “joint combat readiness patrol” and a “military exercise,” Koo said the “patrols” are usually conducted by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on a weekly basis and involve “more PLA Air Force and Navy assets, and Chinese naval vessels advance to 24 nautical miles [44km] off Taiwan’s coast.”
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
China conducted two joint combat readiness patrols on Monday, as it has resorted to any excuses it could find to justify its actions, Koo said.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs offered a different interpretation of the military patrols.
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) said the patrols were in response to “the US State Department’s alteration of documents on US-Taiwan relations” that endangered peace across the Strait.
Mao was apparently referring to the department’s change of a Taiwan-US relations fact sheet published on its Web site in the middle of last month. It removed a line indicating Washington’s long-held stance of not supporting Taiwanese independence.
In a statement issued late on Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs “strongly condemned” China’s military action that it said jeopardized cross-strait peace and stability.
Separately yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said China deployed 59 warplanes and nine vessels in Taiwan’s vicinity on Monday after a few days of relative calm.
Of those aircraft, more than two dozen crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and the others entered Taiwan’s ADIZ, a flight map released by the ministry showed.
Two balloons were also detected over waters just north of Taiwan between 6am Monday and 6am yesterday.
The ministry said it scrambled combat air and sea patrols, and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese military aircraft.
The ministry yesterday released footage of Taiwanese naval vessels monitoring the Chinese military ships operating around Taiwan, including a Keelung-class destroyer (formerly a Kidd-class destroyer) watching China’s Type 052D destroyer the Guilin.
It also showed surveillance photographs of Chinese attack drones and uncrewed aerial vehicles taken by a Taiwan air force F-16V jet and navy P-3C anti-submarine aircraft.
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