China exaggerating how close it went to islands: Taiwan

TAIPEI • Taiwan yesterday accused China of exaggeration after the Chinese military published footage of the strategically located Penghu islands - where there is a major Taiwanese airbase - saying it was not true that Chinese forces had come near the islands.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory, has carried out military exercises around the island after a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month, followed by that of five US lawmakers on Sunday and Monday.

The Chinese military unit responsible for the area near Taiwan, the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command, released on Monday a video of the Penghu islands, apparently taken by a Chinese air force aircraft.

Taiwan Air Force vice-chief of staff for operations Tung Pei-lun said it was Chinese information warfare, though he had no comment on who had taken the video.

"China used the exaggerated tricks of cognitive warfare to show how close it was to Penghu - which is not true," Mr Tung said.

Taiwan's Defence Ministry on Monday, in an update of Chinese air force activity near Taiwan, showed on a map that the closest Chinese aircraft to Penghu that day were four J-16 fighter jets. The jets crossed the Taiwan Strait median line - an unofficial barrier between the two sides - but stayed closer to the Chinese coast than Penghu.

Mr Tung said Taiwan had a real-time "grasp" of what was going on in the skies, and that Chinese aircraft have been operating to the north and south-west of Taiwan and across the median line.

Penghu, a summer tourist destination for its beaches, is close to Taiwan's south-western coast, unlike the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen and Matsu islands, which are right next to the Chinese coast.

Taiwan's armed forces are well-equipped but dwarfed by China's. The island's President Tsai Ing-wen has been overseeing a modernisation programme and has made increasing defence spending a priority.

Meanwhile, a top US military commander said yesterday that China's recent decision to fire missiles over Taiwan is a "gorilla in the room" that has to be contested.

Those exercises, in response to the US officials' visits, included firing multiple ballistic missiles into waters off Taiwan.

"It's very important that we contest this type of thing... If we just allow that to happen, and we don't contest that, that will be the next norm," the Seventh Fleet commander, Vice-Admiral Karl Thomas, said, adding that it was "irresponsible to launch missiles over Taiwan into international waters", where free shipping operates.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE