Published on : 11/08/2022 – 06:18
The Taiwanese army conducted a new live ammunition defense exercise on Thursday morning. The day before, China had announced the end of its maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait, while ensuring that it “will continue to prepare for war”.
Beijing has ended its military maneuvers but that does not stop the army Taiwanese which carried out a new live ammunition exercise on Thursday 11 August. It fired howitzers and flares, Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for the 8th Army Corps, told AFP.
“We have two objectives in these exercises, the first is to ensure the good condition of the artillery and its good maintenance and the second is to confirm the results of last year”, explained Lou Woei-jye, in reference to military exercises in 2021.
A live broadcast showed artillery pieces lined up on the coast and soldiers, divided into units, firing one following another howitzers out to sea.
Taiwan had already conducted a military exercise on Tuesday in Pingtung. Hundreds of men attended both sessions, according to the military. The authorities have minimized the scope of these exercises, ensuring that they were already scheduled and were not a response to those of China.
Beijing does not “renounce the use of force” once morest its neighbor
Beijing got carried away following a visit to Taiwan last week by Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, launching multi-day air and sea exercises around the island. Taipei accused China of using the visit as a pretext to practice an invasion.
Beijing announced on Wednesday the end of its maneuvers, declaring that its forces had “carried out various tasks” in the Taiwan Strait, while promising to continue patrolling its waters. But, in the same statement, China assured that she “will continue to conduct military training and prepare for war”.
At the same time, the Chinese Office of Taiwanese Affairs declared on Wednesday in a white paper that Beijing does not “renounce the use of force” once morest its neighbor and reserved “the possibility of taking all necessary measures”.
“We are willing to create a broad space (of cooperation) in order to achieve peaceful reunification,” the document said. “But we will leave no room for separatist actions aimed at pseudo-independence for Taiwan.”
With AFP