The People's Liberation Army (PLA, the Chinese Army) has announced this Saturday three days of military exercises around Taiwan as a "stern warning" for "provocative activities and conspiracies among separatist forces seeking 'Taiwan independence' and external forces”, as explained by Chinese colonel Shi Yi when announcing the maneuvers.
This is how Beijing responds to the visit of the president of the self-governing island, Tsai Ing-wen, to the United States, where she met with the leader of the House of Representatives, the Republican Kevin McCarthy, in a brief stop.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense has warned that 71 Chinese fighters and nine Chinese ships crossed the median dividing line of the Taiwan or Formosa Strait, an unofficial border between the mainland and the island, for a short period of time on Saturday.
For its part, the Maritime Safety Administration of the Chinese province of Fujian (the closest to the former Formosa) issued a navigation warning late Friday before the start of several days of live-fire exercises off the coast of this region of southeast China.
In addition, the Reuters agency reports that a Chinese military ship was firing projectiles this Saturday in a coastal area belonging to Fuzhou, the provincial capital of Fujian, located off the Matsu Islands, controlled by Taipei.
Military personnel load missiles onto a plane at the airbase in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on Saturday.
RITCHIE B. TONGO (EFE)
Colonel Shi Yi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army, has announced that between this Saturday and Monday, the Chinese Armed Forces will carry out military combat readiness exercises in sea zones and airspace. from the Taiwan Strait;
specifically, off the northern, southern and eastern coasts of the island.
Shi added that these operations "are necessary to safeguard China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
The state television channel CCTV anticipates that the tests "will be focused on verifying the coordination of the combat systems to take control of the sea, air and information" and that "simultaneous patrols around the island will be organized to create a deterrent situation general".
The war training began a day after the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wen, returned to the island after having visited New York and Los Angeles on the way there and back from a trip to Central America.
Despite repeated threats from Beijing, the president met on Wednesday in California with Kevin McCarthy, speaker of the US House of Representatives and number three in the hierarchy of that country.
China considers the self-governing island an inalienable part of its territory, whose unification is an "inviolable duty of all the Chinese people" and for which it does not rule out the use of force.
When McCarthy's predecessor in the post, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan in August, the Asian giant responded with military maneuvers of unprecedented intensity in the Strait.
The nationalist newspaper
Global Times
quotes the Chinese military expert and commentator Song Zhongping, who assures that in the new drills they will try to "surround the island from all four directions, with the aim of effectively blocking and isolating it, to prevent both access of foreign interfering forces such as the departure of the Taiwanese military.”
"[In case of conflict], such a blockade could send a strong warning to the secessionist forces on the island, urging them to lay down their arms and resolve the issue peacefully," Song adds.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense had reported in recent days that the number of Chinese military ships and aircraft had increased around its territory, but that no unusual movements had been detected.
This Saturday morning, the military authorities have assured that they are monitoring the situation and maintaining a "high degree of vigilance."
"Our army will respond calmly, rationally and seriously, in accordance with the principle of not escalating conflicts or triggering disputes," they declare in a statement.
Despite the fact that China has insisted in the last week that it does not tolerate "any type of contact" between the authorities in Taipei and Washington, Tsai plans to meet this Saturday with a delegation of US legislators who are visiting Taiwan.
The goal is to "send the Chinese Communist Party a signal of your country's support for the island."
The entourage is led by Michael McCaul, Chairman of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
According to the Taiwanese news agency CNA, the Republican congressman declared on Friday that "it is absolutely necessary to speed up the delivery of arms to Taiwan."
A Taiwan Air Force Mirage 2000-5 fighter takes off from the Hsinchu airbase on Saturday.
CARLOS GARCIA RAWLINS (REUTERS)
"The people of Taiwan love democracy and peace," President Tsai said Saturday, adding that she looks forward to security cooperation with the United States.
Tsai made these comments at the start of a lunch with the delegation of US lawmakers led by Michael McCaul, according to Reuters.
The Chinese news agency Xinhua publishes an editorial this Saturday in which it condemns the United States classifying as a "transit visit" and "private" the stop that Tsai Ing-wen made in the country during her trip to Guatemala and Belize.
These countries are two of the 13 states that recognize the island as a sovereign nation and, therefore, do not maintain diplomatic ties with Beijing.
"There, Tsai met with US government officials and congressmen, including Kevin McCarthy, trumpeted 'Taiwan independence' at every opportunity he got and sought 'international support'," the text criticizes.
“This is a provocative act on the part of the US and Taiwanese authorities,” the agency writes.
One China
”.
"The Taiwan issue is at the center of China's fundamental interests and is the first red line that should not be crossed in Sino-American relations," settles the article published in the state agency.
Since Washington broke off official relations with Taipei in 1979 to establish them with Beijing, the bilateral ties of the two main world economic powers have been based on the
One China principle.
, which implies precisely that: there is only one China and this includes Taiwan, where the nationalist leaders fled, defeated by the communist army in the civil war in 1949. From the 1970s to the present, 182 countries have recognized Beijing as the legitimate Government of China, to the detriment of Taipei, although they maintain economic and commercial ties with the island.
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