A day after the announcement of the end of the maneuvers by Beijing, the situation has not changed. Chinese warships and aircraft are still around Taiwan on Tuesday. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it counted nine Chinese warships and 26 aircraft around the island.
Beijing had launched military exercises around Taiwan on Saturday for a period of three days, during which simulations of targeted strikes and an exercise in encirclement of the autonomous island took place. China regards Taiwan as a province that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It aims for this reunification by force if necessary.
Destabilization of the region
This show of force came after the meeting Wednesday in California between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and the speaker of the American House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, to which Beijing had promised to react. Tsai Ing-wen condemned the military maneuvers on Monday, hours after their official completion, saying that China was using relations between Taipei and Washington as an “excuse to launch military exercises, creating instability in Taiwan and In the region “.
“Although China’s military exercise has come to an end, our military and national security team will continue to stand by and defend the country,” said the Taiwanese president.
Simulate a “closure” of the territory
The Chinese military’s objective was to simulate a “closure” of the territory of 23 million people, she explained. And in particular an “air blockade”, according to state television CCTV. Washington, which had repeatedly called on China to show restraint, on Monday sent the American destroyer USS Milius to an area of the South China Sea claimed by Beijing to conduct a “freedom of navigation operation”. An “intrusion” immediately denounced by China.