“China will firmly defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” said Mao Ning, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, describing Taiwan as an “inalienable” part of China.
China has set up seven “temporary reserved zones” of airspace east of the eastern provinces of Fujian and Zhejiang, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. He added that these restrictions would be in effect from Monday to Wednesday.
Such areas are temporarily reserved and allocated to a specific user for a specific period, but they can be crossed by other flights with the permission of controllers, in accordance with international rules.
China’s Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
A security source in Taipei told Reuters that China currently has nearly 90 vessels and coast guards in waters near Taiwan, Japan’s southern islands and the East and South China Seas, including both About a third are carried out by naval vessels.
The Taiwanese army said for its part that it had launched its “combat readiness exercises” in strategic locations and that its navy and coast guard ships were closely monitoring Chinese military activities. “Any unilateral, irrational and provocative action could seriously harm peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region, which the international community will not accept,” warned the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense.
In a separate statement, Taiwan’s coast guard said seven Chinese coast guard vessels had engaged in “gray zone harassment” against the island since the start of the day.
China said on Sunday that it “strongly condemns” the authorization granted by the United States for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to visit Hawaii, where he was notably welcomed by the governor of this American archipelago.
This is the first stop on the Taiwanese leader’s tour of several Pacific territories, a trip that he presents as the entry into a “new democratic era”, but which arouses the ire of Beijing.
China considers that Taiwan is one of its provinces, which it has not yet succeeded in reunifying with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. It does not exclude the use of strength to achieve this.
Opposed to any initiative giving the Taiwanese authorities international legitimacy, China is firmly against any official contact between Taiwan and other countries.
In Hawaii, Lai Ching-te was welcomed by Governor Josh Green as well as by Ingrid Larson, the director in Washington of the American representation in Taipei (American Institute in Taiwan).
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