TAIPEI, Taiwan – The Chinese army sent 18 aircraft, adding fighter jets, over the Taiwan Strait in a gigantic show of force on Friday when a U. S. envoy held a day of closed-door meetings on the autonomous island claimed through China.
Undersecretary of state Keith Krach, who manages the portfolio of economic growth, energy and the environment, met with Taiwan’s Minister of Economic Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister; he also met with business leaders over lunch and had a dinner scheduled with President Tsai Ing. -wen later on Friday.
In reaction to Krach’s visit, the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army of China conducted fighting training near the Taiwan Strait, at least this month’s circular of war games aimed at intimidating supporters of the island’s independent identity.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said two Chinese bombers and fighter jets had entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone. He said he had mixed the planes in reaction and monitored the movements of Chinese aircraft.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang called the training “legitimate and action taken in reaction to the scenario in the Taiwan Strait to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. “
“Recently, the U. S. government and the Democratic Progressive Party (in Taiwan) have intensified their collusion and caused unrest,” Ren told reporters Friday morning. “Whether you use Taiwan to engage China or rely on foreign powers to threaten others, it’s an illusion and it’s meant to be a dead end. “
In a brief message in his microblog, Eastern Theatre Command said training referred to naval and air ensembles in the Taiwan Strait to assess his ability to conduct joint operations.
China’s Foreign Ministry also defended the decision. Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said China has “the will of the company, complete confidence, and to thwart all external interference and separatist movements through Taiwan’s separatist forces. “
Beijing considers Taiwan to be a component of its own territory and strongly opposes any form of formal interaction between other countries and autonomous island democracy.
Krach’s remains on a scale in August through U. S. Secretary of Health Alex Azar, the most sensible U. S. cabinet official since the United States transferred official relations from Taiwan to China in 1979.
It is part of a series of measures taken through Trump’s management for relations with Taiwan, adding up higher arms sales and aid for the island’s participation in foreign forums.
Prior to Krach’s arrival, U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Craft, lunched Wednesday with Taiwan’s most sensible official in New York in what she described as historic.
On Saturday, the last day of his visit, Krach will attend a memorial service in honor of former President Lee Teng-hui, who led the island’s transition to democracy and died at age 97 in July.
Analysts say China’s army reaction is a transparent message to the United States to avoid what they are doing, as the Chinese side took similar steps to the U. S. Health Secretary’s scale in August.
“I think the Chinese are this tool to prevent the kind of diplomatic appointments between the United States and Taiwan. It’s very transparent to them,” said Alfred Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Tensions between Washington and Beijing have already peaked as governments compete for the coronavirus, trade, technology, Hong Kong, and South China Sea pandemic.
The frequency of Chinese trainings near Taiwan is reminiscent of the last primary crisis among them in 1995-96, when China fired missiles near the island and staged war games with the aim of intimidating the electorate in Taiwan’s first direct presidential election. counterproductive part.
Taiwan said Chinese fighter jets entered its airspace for two days last week in large-scale war games that it called it a “serious provocation to Taiwan and a serious risk to regional peace and stability. “
Such movements across the Chinese army threaten the entire region, he said, and asked the network to respond.
China has been based on army threats and diplomatic isolation to exert pressure on Taiwan. This follows the obvious failure of their efforts to convince the island’s 23 million inhabitants of the prospect of political unification under the “one country, two systems” used in Hong Kong with a large majority of Taiwanese in favor of maintaining the prestige quo of de facto independence.
Despite the frequency of the exercises, analysts said this meant an imminent war.
“Beijing’s signal is very, very clear, but does this mean a prelude to the war?No, that’s why,” said Chong-Pin Lin, former Deputy Minister of Defense in Taiwan.
China cut contacts with the Taiwanese government after the 2016 election in Tsai, re-elected by a wide margin this year and its Progressive Democratic Party kept its majority in the legislature.
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This story has been corrected to show that the overpass took place on Friday, Monday.
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