MARITIME EXERCISES A China Coast Guard vessel is seen sailing near Taiwan on May 23, 2024. Kyodo
BEIJING -- China continued Friday its large-scale military drills surrounding Taiwan for a second day, testing its ability to "seize control of crucial areas" and increasing pressure on the self-ruled island's new leader Lai Ching-te.
The two-day exercises involving China's army, navy, air and rocket forces followed Monday's inauguration of Lai, whom Beijing denounces as a separatist. Dozens of warplanes as well as destroyers and escort ships have been deployed from the mainland, according to state-run China Central Television.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it had detected 49 Chinese military aircraft, 19 navy vessels and seven China Coast Guard ships operating near the island in the 24 hours through 6 a.m.
The Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command, which covers the Taiwan Strait, has said the drills are being held as a "strong punishment" for those seeking the island's independence and a "stern warning" against interference and provocation by external forces.
Senior Col. Wu Qian, a spokesman of China's Defense Ministry, accused Lai of "seriously challenging the one-China principle" and striving for independence by relying on external forces, "pushing the Taiwan compatriots toward the danger of war."
"This is totally an act of playing with fire, and those who play with fire will end up getting burned," he warned.
The United States on Thursday urged China to act with restraint, with a State Department spokesperson saying in an email to Kyodo News that Beijing's "actions risk escalation and erode long-standing norms that have maintained regional peace and stability for decades."
In his inaugural speech, Lai called Taiwan a "sovereign, independent nation" and insisted that it and the mainland are "not subordinate to each other" while vowing to maintain the status quo in their relations.
Hsieh Chang-ting, representative of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan, criticized China's military drills at a Tokyo press conference on Friday, saying they "destroy the stability of the Asia-Pacific region and escalate tensions."
"If Taiwan falls, it means a defeat for democracies in the world," said the island's de facto ambassador to Japan, calling for support from the international community.
In Taipei, citizens were generally calm and continued business as usual despite the Chinese military drills.
A 79-year-old former doctor who took part in a protest against controversial bills that would expand the legislature's power said the island's people have dismissed threats from the mainland because they "have a high degree of democratic literacy."
China conducted large-scale military drills encircling Taiwan in August 2022 as well as April and August last year in response to contacts between high-ranking officials of the United States and the island.
Su Tzu-yun, director at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taiwanese think tank, pointed out that China's military drills this time are shorter and more limited in scale compared with the three exercises in recent years, signaling Beijing's intention "to avoid a backlash and protests from many countries."
The latest drills, for instance, do not cover Japan's exclusive economic zone, which was included in the August 2022 exercises in response to a visit to Taiwan by then U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Tokyo lodged a protest with Beijing as some of the ballistic missiles fired by China at that time fell into Japan's EEZ, located east of Taiwan.
However, with the ongoing drills triggering expressions of concern from Japan, the United States, the European Union and the United Nations, China's strategy appears not to have worked, Su told Kyodo News in a telephone interview.
The director also suggested that the exercises, ostensibly aimed at "punishing Taiwan," were actually conducted because of domestic pressure in the country to shift the focus away from its slumping economy.
Communist-led China and Taiwan have been governed separately since they split as the result of a civil war in 1949. Beijing aims to bring the island into its fold, by force if necessary. Kyodo
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