Taiwan says China is 'preparing for an invasion' and conducting its own military drills

The tension does not diminish.

Early Tuesday morning, the Taiwan army conducted - as it does regularly - a live ammunition exercise, simulating the defense of the island against a Chinese invasion.

An AFP reporter on the spot saw the start of operations in Pingtung County (south) shortly after 8:40 a.m. (local time), with flares and artillery fire.

The drill ended around 9:30 a.m. local time, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan's Eighth Corps.

A second is scheduled for Thursday.

It will notably involve the deployment of several hundred soldiers and around 40 howitzers, the army said.

Monday, Lou Woei-jye assured that the Taiwanese exercises were already scheduled and that it was not a response to the ongoing Chinese exercises.

China launched its biggest military maneuvers around Taiwan last week, in response to a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to visit the self-governing island in decades. .

Beijing on Monday extended its joint sea and air maneuvers around the island without specifying how long they would continue.

"Preparing for the Invasion"

This Tuesday morning, during a press conference in Taipei, the Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs, Joseph Wu, judged that Beijing “used the exercises and its military roadmap to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan.

China's real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and the whole region,” he continued.

Read alsoTaiwan: five minutes to understand the tensions between China and the United States

“It conducts large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation campaign and economic coercion in order to weaken the morale of the people in Taiwan,” added Joseph Wu at the end. morning exercises led by Taiwan.

China considers Taiwan, with a population of around 23 million, to be one of its provinces, which it has yet to successfully reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War (1949 ).

This Tuesday morning, Joseph Wu did not fail to thank his Western allies during his press conference, including Nancy Pelosi, for standing up to China.

“It also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not yield to the bullying of authoritarianism,” he said.

No Chinese warplanes or ships entered Taiwan's territorial waters - within 12 nautical miles of land - during the Beijing drills, Taiwan said.

Beijing considers its reaction “appropriate”

Last week, however, the Chinese military released a video of an Air Force pilot filming the island's coast and mountains from his cockpit, showing how close he had come. Taiwanese coasts.

Ballistic missiles were also fired over the Taiwanese capital, Taipei, during the drills last week, Chinese state media reported.

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Taiwan: Chinese military exercises to "punish independence forces"

The scale and intensity of China's drills - coupled with its withdrawal from international climate and defense negotiations - have sparked outrage in the United States and other Western countries.

But Beijing on Monday defended its behavior, calling it "firm, forceful and appropriate" in the face of US provocation.

"(We) are only issuing a warning to those responsible" for this crisis, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a press briefing, promising that China would "firmly break the illusion of the Taiwanese authorities to obtain independence through the intermediary of the United States”.