Taiwan Slams China’s Military Drills, Says ‘It Undermines Regional Stability’

Taipei, August 17: Taiwan on Tuesday condemned China's renewed military drills saying that it undermined regional stability and interfere with important shipping routes in the region.

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) termed China's military drills as "absurd and savage". It comes in the backdrop of a visiting delegation of US senators to the self-governed island, reported Taiwan News. Taiwan Defence Ministry Says China Simulating Attack on Its Main Island.

On Sunday evening (Aug. 14), a five-member US congressional delegation, led by Senator Ed Markey arrived in Taipei, just 12 days after US Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a historic trip to the country.

In response, the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command on Monday afternoon blasted the latest visit as "flagrantly violating" the "one-China" principle and the Three Communiques, as well as China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and announced that it organized multi-service joint combat readiness patrols and drills in the "sea and airspace around Taiwan Island."

Taiwan's foreign ministry on Tuesday responded to China's escalated exercises by issuing a statement in which it reiterated that receiving foreign congressmen is "completely normal for regular exchanges between democratic countries. It stated that "it is absurd and savage for China to use this as a pretext to launch dangerous military provocations."

MOFA emphasized that China's actions will only further undermine regional stability and "interfere with important shipping routes and commercial activities in the Indo-Pacific region" and that such actions are "unjustifiable and irresponsible." The ministry stated that it strongly condemns China's military provocation and "continuous creation of crises," reported Taiwan News.

The ministry urged China to immediately stop escalating regional tensions and called on the international community to jointly condemn China's "irrational military moves," which it described as not only undermining the status quo across the Taiwan Strait but also "posing a serious challenge to regional security. "

It stressed that China's unilateral creation of the crisis has "once again confirmed that the Beijing authorities are the party that undermines the status quo in the Taiwan Strait."

The ministry pointed out that the two sides of the strait are not subordinate to each other and that the People's Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan, "which is an internationally recognized truth," reported Taiwan News.

China's ruling Chinese Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory, despite having never controlled it, and has long vowed to "reunify" the island with the Chinese mainland, by force if necessary.

In a statement Monday, China's Defense Ministry called the congressional delegation's trip an "ambush visit" that "violates China's sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The military drills by its Eastern Theater Command were a "solemn deterrent" of "collusion and provocation" by the US and Taiwan, said spokesperson Wu Qian. Beijing's Foreign Ministry also decried the congressional visit in a regular news briefing Monday.

Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said China urges the US to "not cause further damage to Sino-US relations and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait." "China will take resolute and strong measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," Wang said.

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