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China’s military has launched a 10-hour live-fire exercise around Taiwan, as US President Donald Trump downplayed the seriousness of the latest large-scale maneuvers.
“They’ve been doing naval exercises in that area for 20 years,” Trump said. “Now people take it a little differently.”
Speaking at a news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump said he had a “great relationship” with President Xi Jinping and that the Chinese leader “hasn’t told me anything about the exercises”.
“I’m not worried about anything,” Trump said.
Tuesday’s drills marked the second day of large-scale army, navy, air and rocket force operations around Taiwan by the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command.
Chinese military officials have said the exercises, called “Justice Mission 2025”, will test the PLA’s combat readiness as well as its ability to block Taiwan’s ports and deter outside forces.
The exercise came just 11 days after the US approved an $11 billion arms sale to Taiwan, the largest arms purchase deal of its kind between Washington and Taipei.
China’s Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang urged “relevant countries” to “abandon the illusion of using Taiwan to contain China.”
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that as of 6 a.m. Tuesday it had detected 130 Chinese military aircraft and 14 naval ships.
Of the 130 flights, 90 had entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones. ADIZ extends beyond the limits of a country’s national airspace and provides an early warning system to help detect potential intrusions into sovereign airspace.
Transport officials in Taipei said the disruption to commercial air travel would affect more than 100,000 passengers.
Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan and has threatened to take control by force if Taipei resists its pressure indefinitely. In recent years it has rapidly increased its military activism, including almost daily military activities in Taiwan’s airspace and waters.
Taiwan has condemned the practice and accused the Chinese Communist Party of endangering global peace and stability. It vowed to confront Beijing’s threat with full preparedness “along with our democratic partners.”
Wang Wenjuan, a researcher at the PLA’s Academy of Military Sciences, told the CCP’s nationalist mouthpiece Global Times that naming this week’s drills “Justice” reflects their aim of asserting “Taiwan’s independence”, separatism and opposing external interference, and demonstrating the full “legality and legality” of the drills.
Nicholas Burns, a former US ambassador to Beijing and professor at Harvard University’s Kennedy School, said China’s “large-scale exercises simulating a blockade of Taiwan should be condemned around the world”.
He used social media platforms
Any increase in military activity around Taiwan could strain US-China relations, including the fragile truce brokered by Trump and Xi in the trade war between the world’s largest economies in October.
The exercise also highlighted renewed tensions between China and Japan, after Prime Minister Sanae Takachi suggested that a Chinese invasion of Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
Mapping by Haosiang Ko in Hong Kong
