China’s defence ministry has said on Thursday that drills which had alarmed Taiwan off its coast were “routine” and the island nation should stop complaining, as Taipei reported a surge in Chinese military activity, although no live-fire exercises were reported.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, said on Wednesday the Chinese military had set up a zone for “shooting” drills in the southwestern part of the Taiwan Strait, off the key areas of Kaohsiung and Pingtung.
Taiwan condemned the move as dangerous, provocative and a threat to commercial flights and shipping, adding that it was given no prior notice.
At a regular news briefing in Beijing, Chinese Defence Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said Taiwan was seeking attention.
“The relevant Taiwan authorities’ comments on the People’s Liberation Army’s routine exercises are hype, and we require them to stop playing tricks for more attention,” he said, without elaborating.
In its daily morning update of Chinese military activities in the prior 24 hours, the Defence Ministry of Taiwan said it had detected 45 Chinese military aircraft and 14 navy ships operating around the island. They included seven ships in the Chinese-declared drill zone, 40 nautical miles off Taiwan.
The ministry showed the location of the drill zone, which it said was 70 nautical miles long and 20 nautical miles wide, though well outside of Taiwan’s territorial waters.
Taiwan did not detect any live-fire shooting in China’s “drill zone” and there was no further escalation of military tensions, however, two senior Taiwan officials told media on condition of anonymity, given the sensitivity of the situation.
They said the Chinese move was very similar to its other recent military activity in the region, such as in the South China Sea and that off Australia’s coast, during which its navy did not give adequate notice of exercises.
“This is extremely rare and exceeds general expectations,” one of the officials said, referring to the Chinese military’s move of running exercises without prior warning.
“Allies are exchanging ideas,” the official said. “The democratic camp must do some risk management for our defence.”
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday that China was the “biggest troublemaker” in the region.
It urged the international community “to continue to pay attention to the security of the Taiwan Strait and the region, and to jointly condemn China’s repeated and unilateral actions”.
In Washington on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump declined to respond to a question on whether the United States would ever allow China to take control of Taiwan by force.
However, in a separate interview to an American news outlet, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the government had a long-standing position on Taiwan it was not going to abandon, namely being against any forced or coercive change in Taiwan’s status.
“America has existing commitments that it has made to prevent that from happening and to react to it, and that would be executed on … The Chinese are aware of this as well,” he said, when asked what would the U.S. do if China attacked.
Taiwan rejects China’s sovereignty claims and has repeatedly complained of Chinese military activities, including several rounds of full-scale war games during the past three years.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
