China says Taiwan drills ‘routine’, as Taipei details surge in military activity
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Taiwan also said the Chinese military had set up a zone for “shooting” drills in the south-western part of the Taiwan Strait.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TAIPEI - China’s Defence Ministry said on Feb 27 that drills which had alarmed Taiwan off its coast were “routine” and the island should stop complaining, as Taipei reported a surge in Chinese military activity, although there were no live-fire exercises.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, said on Feb 26 that the Chinese military had set up a zone for “shooting” drills in the south-western part of the Taiwan Strait, off the major population centres of Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
Taiwan’s government condemned the move as dangerous, provocative and a threat to commercial flights and shipping, adding that no prior notice was given.
At a regular news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said Taiwan was seeking attention.
“The relevant Taiwan authorities’ comments on the People’s Liberation Army’s routine exercises are hype, and we require them to stop playing tricks for more attention,” he said, without elaborating.
In its daily morning update on Chinese military activities in the prior 24 hours, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said it had detected 45 Chinese military aircraft and 14 navy ships operating around the island, including seven ships in the Chinese-declared drill zone, 40 nautical miles off Taiwan.
In an accompanying map, the ministry showed the location of the drill zone, which it said was about 129.6km long and 37km wide, though well outside of Taiwanese territorial waters.
No live fire
Two senior Taiwanese officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, said Taiwan did not detect any live-fire shooting in China’s “drill zone” and there was no further escalation of military tensions.
They said the Chinese move was very similar to Beijing’s other recent military activities in the region, such as in the South China Sea and off Australia’s coast, during which China’s navy did not give adequate notice about its exercises.
“This is extremely rare and exceeds general expectations,” one of the officials said, referring to the Chinese military’s move of running exercises without prior warning.
“Allies are exchanging ideas,” the official added. “The democratic camp must do some risk management for our defence.”
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that China was the region’s “biggest troublemaker”.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs calls on the international community to continue to pay attention to the security of the Taiwan Strait and the region, and to jointly condemn China’s repeated and unilateral actions,” it said on Feb 27.
Speaking in Washington on Feb 26, US President Donald Trump declined to comment in response to a question about whether the US would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
But in a separate interview with Fox News, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government had a longstanding position on Taiwan that it was not going to abandon, namely being against any forced or coercive change in Taiwan’s status.
“America has existing commitments that it has made to prevent that from happening and to react to it, and that would be executed on... The Chinese are aware of this as well,” he said, when asked what the US would do if China attacked.
China Parliament meet
Taiwan, whose government rejects China's sovereignty claims, has repeatedly complained of Chinese military activities, including several rounds of full-scale war games during the past three years.
Next week, China will hold the annual meeting of its Parliament, the country’s biggest domestic political event, where it will unveil its defence budget for the year.
March also marks the 20th anniversary of China’s “anti-secession law”, which allows it to use force on Taiwan in extreme cases, though the legislation is vague.
A third senior Taiwan official, who is familiar with government policy towards China, said that Taipei has made “the best preparations for the worst-case scenario”, in the event that China escalates its rhetoric on Taiwan ahead of that anniversary, adding that pre-Parliament drills were “very rare”.
“They escalated the level of intimidation for no reason. It is not conducive to cross-strait stability and relations at all,” the official added.
This week, Taiwan also detained a Chinese-linked cargo vessel
Late on Feb 26, prosecutors in the southern city of Tainan said they had ordered the ship’s Chinese captain to be detained, and prohibited the seven other crew members – all also Chinese – from leaving Taiwan.
China said on Feb 26 that Taiwan was casting aspersions before the facts were clear, and that undersea cables worldwide are routinely damaged by accident. REUTERS
