Taiwan returned this Sunday to denounce the Chinese army for mock attacks on the island, in what should be the last day of military maneuvers organized by Beijing in retaliation for the visit to Taipei by the leader of the US Congress.
“Several groups” of Chinese planes, ships and drones were detected this morning in the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement.
Chinese forces continue to “conduct joint air and sea exercises, simulating attacks on the island of Taiwan and our ships at sea,” while groups of aircraft “infest” other Taipei-controlled islands, the statement said.
Shortly after, the official Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that Sunday’s drills were aimed at “testing joint fire capabilities for long-range ground and air attacks.”
As has been the case in recent days, Taiwanese forces have dispatched planes and ships to “closely monitor the enemy’s situation.”
The movements of the People’s Liberation Army (the Chinese army) are part of the military exercises that China has been carrying out since Thursday and that, in principle, should end today at 12:00 local time (5:00 p.m. in Lisbon).
Although Beijing has yet to officially confirm the end of the exercises, Taiwan’s main airport, Taoyuan, has assured that all flights will return to normal on Monday.
According to the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, which quotes a representative from that airport, since last Thursday more than 900 international flights have had to divert their routes to the Philippines or Japan so as not to fly over the military maneuver zones. and more than 200 were cancelled.
The exercises included live fire and long-range missile launches and were carried out in six zones around the island, one of which is about 20 kilometers off the coast of Kaohsiung, the main city in southern Taiwan.
Although China has held other exercises in the Taiwan Strait in recent years, this week’s exercises are different because “they cover a larger area, involve more military elements and are expected to be highly effective,” defense experts said. Chinese quoted by the media. of local communication.
Taiwan described China’s military presence in the areas as a “blockade,” with Taiwan’s president calling China’s “deliberately heightened military threat” “irresponsible.”
China, which described the visit of the leader of the United States Congress, Nancy Pelosi, as a “farce” and “deplorable betrayal”, claims sovereignty over the island and considers Taiwan a dissident province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew to the place in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists
Source: Observadora
