China reaffirmed Monday, at the end of a day of military maneuvers to encircle Taiwan with its planes and warships, that it will “never” abandon the option of “use of force” to conquer the island.
These exercises were presented by the Chinese army as a “warning” to “separatists”, a message addressed to the Taiwanese authorities, regularly accused by Beijing of campaigning for the independence of the island territory.
China considers Taiwan as one of its provinces, which it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949.
“We are ready to work for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and with all our efforts,” said Wu Qian, a spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, in a press release released after the maneuvers.
“But we will never promise to renounce the use of force and we will never give the slightest space to those who campaign for the independence of Taiwan,” he stressed.
Monday’s exercises, named Joint Sword-2024B, took place in areas north, south and east of Taiwan, according to the Chinese military.
– 125 Chinese planes –
It said it had deployed fighters, bombers, destroyers, frigates as well as the aircraft carrier Liaoning. The Chinese coast guard was also mobilized.
China “successfully completed” these maneuvers, which made it possible to “fully test the integrated joint operations capabilities of its troops”, Li Xi, a spokesperson for the army, said in a statement early in the evening. Chinese.
These exercises included in particular “sea-air combat preparation patrols, the blockade of ports and key areas” or even “the assault of maritime and land targets”, he indicated earlier in the day.
Taiwan detected a total of 125 Chinese planes near the island on Monday, said a senior intelligence official at the Taiwanese Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng, who spoke of a “record for a single day “.
The United States denounced “unjustified” operations. Since 1979, Washington has recognized Beijing to the detriment of Taipei as the only legitimate Chinese power, but remains Taiwan’s most powerful ally and its main arms supplier.
The European Union, for its part, called on Monday all parties to “show restraint” in Taiwan.
The Chinese army had described these exercises as “serious warnings” in the face of “separatist actions” and a “legitimate and necessary operation to safeguard the sovereignty of the State”.
– “Irrational behavior” –
These maneuvers came a few days after a speech by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, whose remarks are regularly considered by Beijing to be pro-independence.
“The government will continue to uphold the democratic and free constitutional system, protect a democratic Taiwan and safeguard national security,” Lai said on Facebook on Monday.
“Taiwanese independence and peace in the Taiwan Strait (which separates the island territory from mainland China, editor’s note) are two things perfectly incompatible,” warned Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry in the afternoon. Chinese Foreign Affairs.
For its part, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense denounced these maneuvers, seeing them as “irrational and provocative behavior” from Beijing.
Without making a direct link with the maneuvers, the Taiwanese coast guard announced Monday that it had arrested a Chinese national after a possible “intrusion” into Kinmen, an island controlled by the Taiwanese authorities but located in the immediate vicinity of Chinese coasts.
On Monday afternoon in Taipei, the Taiwanese capital, AFP journalists saw several Taiwanese army vehicles, equipped with machine guns, patrolling near Songshan Airport, which is also a military air base.
– Strained relationships –
Beijing-Taipei ties have been execrable since 2016 and the arrival as Taiwanese president of Tsai Ing-wen, then of her successor Lai Ching-te in 2024.
China regularly accuses the Taiwanese authorities of wanting to deepen the cultural separation between the island and the continent. In response, it notably strengthened its military activity around the territory.
Before Monday’s, Beijing had organized three series of large-scale maneuvers over the past two years, involving its air force and navy to encircle the island territory.
Lai Ching-te pledged Thursday to “resist Chinese annexation” of the island and “encroachment of (its) sovereignty.”
Beijing reacted by warning that the Taiwanese president’s “provocations” would lead to a “disaster” for his people.
Disputes between Beijing and Taipei date back to the long civil war which pitted communist fighters led by Mao Tse-tung against the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek.
Defeated by the communists, who founded the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949, the nationalists took refuge with many civilians in Taiwan, one of the only parts of the national territory then not conquered by the forces of Mao Tse-tung .
