A US Department of State spokesperson yesterday called China's latest drills near Taiwan "brazen and irresponsible threats" while reiterating Washington's decades-long support of Taipei.
"China cannot credibly claim to be a 'force for stability in a turbulent world' while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan," a unnamed department spokesperson said in an e-mail.
Photo: I-Hwa Cheng, Bloomberg
The spokesperson said Washington's enduring commitment to Taiwan would continue as it has for 45 years, and that the US "will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China's military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign."
"Alongside our international partners, we firmly support cross-strait peace and stability and oppose any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion," the spokesperson said.
A US Department of Defense spokesperson said that the US military was monitoring Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) activity around Taiwan, but did not elaborate.
The two US government spokespeople made the remarks when asked to comment on the US' stance on the PLA's military activity around Taiwan on Monday.
The PLA sent more than two dozen Chinese military aircraft across the median line of the Taiwan Strait and dozens more into Taiwan's air defense identification zone in collaboration with Chinese naval vessels on Monday from 6am to about 9pm, according to data issued by Taiwan's military.
PLA activity in the previous week leading into Monday and yesterday (when there were 10 jet fighter sorties and one that crossed the median line) was relatively calm.
China' Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the drills on Monday were a "just and necessary" move to safeguard national sovereignty and peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The drills are also a countermeasure to moves by "Taiwan's leader" to "propagate separatist fallacies aimed at 'Taiwan independence' and his act to escalate tensions and confrontation across the Strait," Chen said, referring to President William Lai (賴清德).
Asked to comment on the relatively stern wording used by the US State Department on the PLA drills, Robert Wang, a former State Department official, said that it "sounds like relatively strong language to me."
Julian Ku, a Hofstra University law professor, also said the word "brazen" is "a little unusual from the State Department as applied to these kinds of exercises."
He said he agreed "this is a slight change in tone."
"Overall, the State Department has not shown any signs of softer language on China or on Taiwan as compared with the [former US president Joe] Biden administration, and probably a little more Taiwan supportive, as in this case," he said.
During last year's "Joint Sword 2024B" military exercises around Taiwan in October, the State Department said it was "seriously concerned" by PLA's military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan and described them "unwarranted" and risking escalation.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
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