Taiwan’s foreign minister accused Beijing on Tuesday of using military exercises to prepare for an invasion of the island.
Beijing “used military exercises to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan”said Joseph Wu at a press conference in Taipei, after the maneuvers of the island’s armed forces that took place on Tuesday.
“China’s true intention is to change the ‘status quo’ in the Taiwan Strait and in the entire region,” he stressed.
“It is carrying out large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, a disinformation campaign and economic coercion to weaken the morale of the Taiwanese people,” he added.
The Taiwanese armed forces carried out a live-fire artillery exercise on Tuesday to simulate the defense of the island against an attack by China. another is scheduled for Thursday.
China last week launched its largest military exercises around Taiwan, in response to the visit of the leader of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, the most important US political figure to visit the island in 25 years. .
China considers Taiwan, with a population of about 23 million, as one of its provinces, which must be reunified with the rest of the territory, since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, when the nationalists lost the conflict against the communists. . and took refuge on the island.
The Taiwanese military said on Monday that the exercises were already scheduled and were not a response to ongoing Chinese exercises.
The island regularly conducts military exercises simulating a Chinese invasion and last month carried out exercises from the sea, in a scenario in which it sought to repel attacks in a “joint interdiction operation”, as part of its large annual exercises.
Source: Observadora
