Taiwan accuses China of preparing invasion, holds defensive drills

China last week kicked off the largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan for U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the self-governed island in decades. .

At a press conference in Taipei on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu accused Pelosi of using Pelosi’s visit as a pretext for military action, saying: “China has been practicing military planning in preparation for an invasion of Taiwan. was used,” he said.

The Chinese military said exercises in Taiwan continued on Tuesday, involving air and naval forces.

The Taipei exercise began in southern Pingtung County shortly after 0040 GMT, firing target flares and artillery, and ended less than an hour later at 0130 GMT, said Lou Woei, a spokesman for Taiwan’s VIII Corps. said jye.

The drill, which will also take place on Thursday, involved the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzers, the Army said.

The island regularly conducts military drills simulating defense against a Chinese aggression, and last month practiced repelling an attack from the sea in a “joint interception operation” as part of its largest annual exercise. rice field.

The interdiction exercise came after China extended its own joint maritime and air exercises around Taiwan on Monday, but Washington said it did not expect an escalation from Beijing.

Taiwan’s ambassador Wu on Tuesday accused Beijing of trying to control the waters of the Taiwan Strait and the wider Asia-Pacific region and accused it of conducting military exercises around Taiwan.

Wu thanked Western allies, including the United States, for standing up to China after Pelosi’s visit.

Taiwan claims that no Chinese fighter jets or vessels entered its territorial waters (within 12 nautical miles of land) during the Beijing exercises.

Chinese ships and planes have regularly crossed the Central Line since the exercise began last week.

– “issue a warning” –

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said the exercise aims to improve the ability of air and naval forces to work together in searching for submarines.

The scale and intensity of China’s military exercises and its withdrawal from key climate and defense talks has sparked anger in the United States and other democracies.

“(We) are only warning the perpetrators,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular news briefing. I will resolutely smash it,” he promised.

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first published as Taiwan accuses China of preparing invasion, holds defensive drills