2023-08-19 07:05:00
Maneuvers that come after the visit to the United States of William Lai, Taiwanese vice-president, described as “new provocation” by China.
By VD with AFP Beijing-Taipei relations soured in 2016 with the arrival of Tsai Ing-wen as president. © Sebastien JARRY / MAXPPP / /MAXPPP Published on 08/19/2023 at 07:05
China launched military maneuvers around Taiwan on Saturday as a “stern warning”, according to state media, after protesting a stopover in the United States by the island’s Vice President, William Lai. “The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Eastern Area Command on Saturday launched joint air and sea patrols and navy and air force military drills around the island of Taiwan,” it said. wrote the official New China news agency, quoting army spokesman Shi Yi.
These maneuvers are intended to test the ability of Chinese ships and planes “to take control of air and sea spaces” and to fight “in real conditions”, specifies the official article. They were also to serve as “stern warnings against the collusion of Taiwan separatists with foreign elements and their provocations”, the agency added.
A visit “strongly condemned”
William Lai, frontrunner in next year’s Taiwanese presidential election, who has called himself a “pragmatic separatist”, is Beijing’s pet peeve. The Harvard-educated doctor-turned-politician stopped by New York and San Francisco after a trip to Paraguay, one of the few nations that officially recognize Taiwan.
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The trip has angered China, which regards Taiwan as one of its provinces and opposes any official contact between Taiwan and Western countries — which would legitimize Taiwanese authorities and undermine its claims to sovereignty over the island. Washington had called for calm about the trip by Mr. Lai, who according to the Taiwanese authorities was only “passing through” American soil before going to Paraguay to attend the inauguration of President-elect Santiago Peña. But on Saturday, an official from the Chinese Communist Party’s office in charge of Taiwan issues “strongly condemned” Lai’s trip, calling it “further provocation” to “strengthen collusion with the United States”. , according to New China
“Resist annexation”
Mr. Lai received the nomination of the Democratic Progressive Party to seek the presidency in 2024 and succeed President Tsai Ing-wen, whose second term will end then. “At this critical moment, we promise again here and now that no matter how great the authoritarian threat to Taiwan, we will never be afraid and we will never back down,” he assured an audience. including representatives of the American Institute in Taiwan which, de facto, acts as the US embassy on the island.
Beijing-Taipei relations soured in 2016 with the arrival of Tsai Ing-wen as president, with Beijing intensifying political and military pressure on the archipelago in recent years. Military planes regularly make incursions into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz). In April, while Ms. Tsai was meeting US Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy, China held three days of military exercises simulating a blockade of Taiwan.
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