Beijing/Taipei, April 11, (dpa/GNA) – Taiwan’s Defence Ministry resolutely backed its right to self-defence, and released photos on Monday, showing its air defence remains on high alert.
“We will defend our skies. And we will never give up our beliefs,” the ministry posted on Twitter. It said the air defence units are steadfastly maintaining their posts.
The Taiwanese response comes as China, concluded on Monday its three-day large-scale military manoeuvres near Taiwan, in retaliation for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with the US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, last week.
Beijing said its manoeuveres were “successfully completed” and were meant as a warning to Taipei about independence movements.
“It is a serious warning about the provocative activities of Taiwan’s separatist independence forces and their collusion with foreign forces,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told the press in Beijing on Monday. He sees the exercises as a “necessary step to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The pro-independence forces and the foreign forces working in league with them in the Taiwan Strait, are the “greatest threat to peace and stability,” he said.
He reiterated that Taiwan is a “purely internal China affair.”
The Chinese leadership considers the island’s democratic republic to be part of the People’s Republic, even though the island has had an independent government for more than 70 years. Beijing is also threatening to conquer Taiwan.
Late Monday, the Taiwan Defence Ministry registered 91 fighter jets and 12 ships from the Chinese military by 6 pm (1000 GMT), within the space of 12 hours. This is a record-high number of Chinese military aircraft entering the airspace surrounding Taiwan in a single day.
Of these, 54 aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s south-western and south-eastern air space, in incursions into the air defence identification zones that make up a buffer area outside Taiwan’s sovereign airspace.
After Tsai returned from California to Taipei late on Friday, China launched three-day military exercises on Saturday. They included simulating several precision strikes on “key targets on the island of Taiwan and surrounding sea areas.”
Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry on Monday condemned China’s provocation, saying it had obviously challenged international orders and undermined the peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the region.
It reiterated that the Taiwanese president visits other countries for diplomatic purposes, and it is a basic right for a sovereign state, saying China was not in a position to meddle in this area.
Tsai stopped in the United States on her return from Central America, where she met the leaders of two diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize. The White House insists her time in the US was not an official visit.
On Monday, the US 7th Fleet said that the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Milius (DDG 69) asserted navigational rights and freedoms in the South China Sea near the Spratly Islands, consistent with international law.
Washington has been committed to Taiwan’s defence capabilities since 1979, which has so far mostly meant arms deliveries.
GNA