New Delhi/Taipei:Amid the ongoing tension between two countries,China held large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands on Monday in what it called a warning against Taiwan's independence.
China's Defense Ministry said the drills were a response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's refusal to concede to Beijing's demands that Taiwan acknowledge itself as a part of the People's Republic of China under the rule of the Communist Party.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry called the drills a provocation and said its forces were prepared to respond. The PLA's Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Navy Senior Captain Li Xi said the navy, army air force, missile corps were all mobilised for the drills.
This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty," Li said in a statement on the service's public media channel.
Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong's Communists swept to power on the mainland.
Lai took office in May, continuing the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China's demand that it recognises Taiwan as a part of China. China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a dead end and that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), Taiwan has noted that China on October 14 launched its so-called Joint Sword-2024B military drill around Taiwan, once again challenging the rules-based international order and gravely undermining regional peace and stability.
Taiwan protests
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), of Taiwan strongly condemned China's action and urged it to pull back and immediately cease its military provocations, the country's Department of Policy Planning said in a statement.
In his National Day address, President Lai Ching-te once again expressed goodwill to China and called for it to act responsibly and work with Taiwan to maintain the prevailing state of peace, stability, and prosperity.
However, China remains determined to intimidate the people of Taiwan through military exercises and is attempting to threaten Taiwan’s democracy and unilaterally disrupt the status quo of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the region.
It said that MOFA solemnly denounces China and urges it to neither use false pretexts aimed at justifying disagreement and strife nor become a troublemaker that undermines regional peace and stability At the same time, MOFA calls on nations around the world to recognize China’s authoritarian and expansionist nature, take concrete actions to support democratic Taiwan at this critical moment, unite in defending the values of freedom and democracy, and safeguard the rules-based international order, as well as the freedom, openness, and prosperity of the Indo-Pacific region.
