Representational image
Representational image
China launched military exercises pressing in on Taiwan on Tuesday, sending warships and fighter planes in what Beijing said was a warning to the island democracy’s president, Lai Ching-te, after he called China a “foreign hostile force.”
Chinese land, navy, air and missile forces would “approach close” to Taiwan and practice “seizure of overall control, strikes on sea and land targets, and the blockade and control of key areas and lanes” at sea, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the People’s Liberation Army regional command that oversees Taiwan, said in a statement issued on Chinese state-run media.
Sometimes, China’s military does not spell out why it holds drills. This time, officials and state media reports were clear: “This is firm punishment for the Lai Ching-te administration’s rampant ‘pro-independence’ provocations,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for the Chinese government’s office on Taiwanese affairs, said in a statement.
Zhu singled out a speech by Lai on March 13 in which he described China as a “foreign hostile force” and laid out 17 measures that Lai said would combat deepening Chinese subversion and spying in Taiwan. Those included restoring military tribunals for cases against military personnel who spy and strengthening oversight of cultural, political and religious exchanges with China. Beijing says that Taiwan is its territory, and that it will eventually absorb the island, by force if Chinese leaders deem that necessary.
New York Times News Service