Chinese and Taiwanese warships played a game of “cat and mouse” on the high seas on Sunday ahead of the scheduled end of four days of unprecedented Chinese military exercises, launched in reaction to a visit to Taiwan by the US House of Representatives speaker. the United States, Nancy Pelosi.
Pelosi’s visit last week angered China, which regards the autonomous island as its territory and has responded by test-firing ballistic missiles on the island’s capital for the first time and closing some areas of dialogue with Washington.
About 10 Chinese and Taiwanese warships sailed closely in the Taiwan Strait, with some Chinese ships crossing the median line, an unofficial buffer separating the two sides, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.
The island’s Defense Ministry said several Chinese military ships, planes and drones were simulating attacks on the island and its navy. He assured that he had sent planes and ships to react “appropriately”.
In a statement later on Sunday, the ministry said it had detected 14 Chinese warships and 66 Chinese aircraft in and around the Taiwan Strait.
It was not immediately clear whether China had ended the drills on Sunday, as previously announced. However, a commentator on Chinese state television claimed that the Chinese military would now conduct “regular” drills on the Taiwan side of the line, assuring that the “historic task” of China’s “reunification” could be accomplished.
As Chinese forces “pressed” the line, as they did on Saturday, the Taiwanese side stayed close to monitor and, to the extent possible, deny the Chinese the ability to cross, the person with knowledge of said. the situation that refused to be identified.
“Both sides are showing restraint,” the source said, describing the maneuvers as “cat and mouse” on the high seas.
Taiwan said its land-based anti-ship missiles and Patriot surface-to-air missiles were on standby.
The Defense Ministry said its F-16 fighter jets were flying advanced anti-aircraft missiles. It issued photos of Harpoon anti-ship weapons loaded on another.
Speaking during a visit to Bangladesh, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said his country’s actions were “legitimate, reasonable, according to law” and aimed at protecting China’s “sacred sovereignty”. “It should be noted that Taiwan is not part of the United States, it is China’s territory,” Wang was quoted as saying by the ministry.
lifting restrictions
The Chinese exercises, centered in six locations around the island, began on Thursday and were scheduled to last at noon on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported last week.
China did not announce on Sunday whether the exercises had ended and Taiwan said it could not verify whether Beijing had halted them as scheduled.
However, Taiwan’s Ministry of Transportation was gradually lifting restrictions on flights through its airspace, saying the drill notifications were no longer in effect. But he added that Taiwan would continue to move flights and ships away from one of the exercise zones off its east coast through Monday morning.
China’s military has said the joint air and sea exercises, north, southwest and east of Taiwan, focused on ground attack and sea assault capabilities.
The United States called the exercises a significant escalation in China’s efforts to change the status quo.
China says its relations with Taiwan are an internal matter and it reserves the right to control the island, by force if necessary. Taiwan rejects China’s claim and says that only the people of Taiwan can decide its future.
China warned the United States not to “act rashly” and create a bigger crisis, and the state-run Xinhua news agency said in a commentary that Pelosi had pulled a “political stunt” out of self-interest.
