A first military operation led by Taiwan took place on Tuesday. A second is scheduled for Thursday.
The first operation began in Pingtung County, southern Taiwan, shortly after 12:40 a.m. GMT (2:40 a.m. French time) on Tuesday, with flares and artillery fire, Agence France-Presse reported. The training ended around 1:30 a.m. GMT (3:30 a.m. French time), said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps. A second exercise is scheduled for Thursday. It will involve the deployment of several hundred soldiers and about 40 howitzers, the army said.
Beijing “used the exercises and its military roadmap to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan”, castigated the Taiwanese Minister of Foreign Affairs during a press conference in the capital after the launch of the operation.
For Joseph Wu, “China’s real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and in the whole region”. “It conducts large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation campaign and economic coercion to weaken people’s morale in Taiwan,” he said.
Exercises that are not a response to those of China
Taipei assures that its military exercises are not a response to intimidation from China. Lou Woei-jye revealed that they were “already scheduled”. This Pacific island regularly organizes training sessions simulating a Chinese invasion. The latest dates from last month, during which she trained to repel attacks from the sea during a “joint interception operation”.
China launched its biggest military maneuvers around Taiwan last week in retaliation for a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking US official to visit the self-governing island in decades.
The People’s Liberation Army Eastern Command said maritime patrol aircraft, fighter jets, helicopters and a destroyer have been training to locate and attack targets in the waters off Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan, which has a population of about 23 million, as one of its provinces, which it has not yet succeeded in reuniting with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese civil war, in 1949.