Taiwanese officials reported this Saturday that there has been a Significant increase in China’s military presence around the island after the deployment of 22 military aircraftA day after the US Secretary of State, Antony BlinkenEnded the trip to Beijing.
He Ministry of Defence The Taiwanese indicated that at 9:30 a.m. Saturday it had detected 22 Chinese Army Air Force aircraft, of which 12 “Crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait” and entered the northern and central parts of the island’s security zone to conduct joint combat patrols with the ships.
He has also assured this in a message published on his social network account “Taiwan’s armed forces are monitoring the situation and have deployed appropriate forces to respond.”,
These events occur just one day after the Secretary of the United States Department of State. Antony BlinkenHas concluded his visit to China to stabilize bilateral relations.
Despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations, the United States is Taiwan’s main international support and arms supplier, represented, for example, in this week’s approval of an aid package worth approximately 7.5 billion euros for the territory.
Meanwhile, the United States and Taiwan will hold another round of trade talks in Taipei next week, the Office of the Trade Representative (USTR) said in a statement on Friday.
The US delegation will be led by Terry McCartin, USTR Assistant Director for China, Mongolia and TaiwanAnd his team will include representatives from other US agencies for talks starting on April 29.
These negotiations take place within the framework of the so-calledUS-Taiwan Trade Initiative on Trade in the 21st Century‘, launched in 2022 and, under which, Taiwan and the United States signed the first part of a partial trade agreement last year.
Although the trade agreement is far from being a free trade agreement, it has been described by Taipei as the most comprehensive trade agreement between the two parties since Washington signed the agreement with Beijing in 1979 under the principle of recognizing “one China”. Had established diplomatic relations with.
That partial agreement is limited, covering issues such as customs forms, regulatory practices and anti-corruption measures, but it does not address Taiwanese complaints about tariffs on certain goods or double taxation in the United States.
The Chinese government had expressed its opposition to the signing of this partial trade agreement last year itself.Arguing that it violates the “one China” principle, which means the only Chinese government Washington recognizes is based in Beijing, it distances it from Taiwan’s independence aspirations.
Taiwan, where Chinese Nationalist forces withdrew after defeat at the hands of Communist troops in the civil war (1927–1949), has been autonomously governed since the end of the war, although China claims sovereignty over the island which it considers a rebel. They have not ruled out the use of force for the “reunification” of what the island considers to be a province.
for its part, Washington is committed to protecting the island Under the Taiwan Relations Act, which it signed in 1979 and which has made the North American power its largest supplier of arms to Taiwan, it is unclear whether the power would intervene in the event of a Chinese attack, a policy called “ambiguity.” Will do. .” “Strategic”.
According to the United States Department of Commerce, in the first two months of this year, US imports of goods from Taiwan reached a value of $14,945 million, and exports of goods to the Asian country amounted to $6,156 million.
The meeting in Taipei follows Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to China this week and US President Joe Biden signing legislation worth $95 billion that includes aid for Taiwan and a clause allowing TikTok to be banned in the United States. may be banned. State.
(With information from Europa Press and EFE)