Taiwan Condemns China's Provocation To Hold Military Shooting Exercises

UNSPLASH ILLUSTRATION

JAKARTA - Taiwan has criticized China for its provocative actions regarding Beijing's military plans to hold "shooting" exercises off the island's southwest coast.

Taiwan has repeatedly complained of China's military activity, including several rounds of full-scale war games over the past three years.

Taiwan's Ministry of Defense said it detected 32 Chinese military aircraft conducting joint combat readiness exercises with Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait region.

During this period they even openly violated international practice by setting up training areas in waters about 40 nautical miles (74 km) off the coast without prior warnings, claiming that they would carry out "shooting training", the ministry continued.

Taiwan's main population centers southwest of Taiwan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung, are both locations for important naval and air bases.

Kaohsiung is also the largest port in Taiwan and a busy global shipping center.

Taiwan emphasized that the exercise endangered the safety of international flights and shipping and was a "broad provocation" of regional peace and stability.

His party sent its own troops just in case.

There has been no direct confirmation from China that they are conducting new exercises around Taiwan.

Other Chinese military activities recently in the region, such as those done off the coast of Australia, are China's only proof, and the biggest threat, to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific, the Taiwanese ministry said.

China has never rejected the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and denounced President Lai Ching-te, who took office last year, as a separatist, and the United States for its support for Taiwan.

Lai's office criticized the exercise, but said the government had fully understood the situation and the public could feel calm.

"Maintaining regional peace and stability is a shared responsibility for both sides of the Taiwan Strait," said Lai spokesman Karen Kuo.