Taiwan steels itself for Chinese drills over Vice-President Lai’s US visit

TAIPEI - China is likely to launch military drills next week near Taiwan, using Vice-President William Lai’s stopovers in the US as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of an election in 2024 and make them “fear war”, Taiwanese officials said.

The US transits by Mr Lai,

who is the front runner for Taiwan’s presidential vote in January, have already drawn Beijing’s ire.

The United States has described the stopovers as routine and no reason for China to take “provocative” action.

Beijing could conduct manoeuvres

similar to the ones it held in April

to “militarily intimidate” Taiwanese voters as well as countries in the region, according to officials briefed on the matter, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The April exercises included practice for blockades in an angry response to a meeting

between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy

during Ms Tsai’s stopover in Los Angeles.

“It is fairly likely that they could use it as a pretext and announce ‘drills’ around the Taiwan Strait,” said one of the sources, a senior official familiar with Taiwan’s security planning.

“They want to build up the fear of war and make Taiwanese vote in favour of their choice.”

Mr Lai will stop in New York on Saturday on his way to Paraguay, and in San Francisco next Wednesday on his way back to Taiwan. He is going to Paraguay, which retains formal ties with Taiwan, for the inauguration of its new president.

Neither China’s Defence Ministry nor its Taiwan Affairs Office responded to a request for comment, though the government has repeatedly condemned the visit. China’s Ambassador to the US said in July that it was his country’s “priority” to stop the visit, though he gave no details.

China has a particular dislike of Mr Lai, who has in the past described himself as a “practical worker for Taiwan independence”.

Mr Lai has repeatedly said during the election campaign

he does not seek to change the status quo.

The Taiwanese official said Beijing could “upgrade” the scale of its “combat readiness patrols” near Taiwan that the People’s Liberation Army has staged frequently in recent months by sending warships and aircraft close to the island. China regards Taiwan as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary.

The drills could start shortly after Mr Lai’s stopover in San Francisco and could be part of upcoming annual exercises by China’s Eastern Theatre Command, which is responsible for military activity in the area, the official said, citing an analysis of intelligence.

Neither Taiwan nor the US has given details of Mr Lai’s schedule on his stopovers.

Low profile

Three US-based sources told Reuters that the Biden administration was eager to keep Mr Lai’s visit low-profile, so as not to stoke tension across the Taiwan Strait before its election, as well as to preserve

the recent momentum in engagement

with senior Chinese officials.

That includes the

prospect of a visit to the US by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi,

which could pave the way for a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Going by past transits, Mr Lai is likely to meet the chair of the Virginia-based American Institute in Taiwan, a US government-run nonprofit that carries out unofficial relations with Taiwan.

The US State Department did not respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan believes the scale of the exercises could be smaller than that of those in April, the Taiwanese official said.

Chinese warplanes or warships, however, could still cross the Taiwan Strait’s median line and approach close to the island’s contiguous zone that is 24 nautical miles, according to the official and another official briefed on the matter.

“We have made all the preparations,” the first official said.

Chinese state television ran an eight-part series earlier in August on the People’s Liberation Army, some of which focused on Taiwan.

In one episode, an officer on a Chinese warship, apparently broadcasting a warning to a Taiwanese vessel, says: “Your so-called 24 nautical mile line does not exist”.

Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry on Thursday said China had “no reason” to raise tension over Mr Lai’s routine stopovers.

“If China uses this to take provocative actions, it will be China that damages regional peace and security, not Taiwan or the US,” ministry spokesman Jeff Liu told reporters.

Taipei-based diplomats were divided on China’s likely reaction, according to eight diplomatic and foreign security sources.

One said Beijing and Washington’s bid to improve relations could temper China’s response.

But a senior foreign security source said Beijing would have to put on a show of force, given its angry denouncements of the trip.

“They have pretty much backed themselves into a corner and will have to do something,” the source told Reuters. REUTERS