At 1:56 p.m. on Thursday, China’s People’s Liberation Army began firing ballistic missiles into the waters off northern, southern and eastern Taiwan. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry counted 11, launched in several waves. It was the first time Beijing had fired missiles into the waters around the island since 1996.
About an hour earlier, the PLA had started live-fire drills in six zones that effectively ring Taiwan’s main island, roughly 100 miles off the Chinese coast. Chinese state media said 100 aircraft from the Eastern Theater Command took part and that the exercises “achieved the expected results.” The drills were announced soon after U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei late on Tuesday night, and they were set to run until Sunday.
Beijing’s case
Pelosi, the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the island in 25 years, left on Wednesday evening. Beijing claims Taiwan, a self-ruling democracy of 24 million people, as its territory and treated the trip as an infringement of its sovereignty.
Foreign Minister Wang Yi, speaking in Phnom Penh at a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, called the visit “manic, irresponsible and highly irrational,” according to Reuters citing CCTV. He said China was taking necessary and timely defensive countermeasures. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying put it this way: “The malicious provocation of the United States came first, and the legitimate defense of China came second.”
A military spokesperson told Xinhua the drills were “a strong deterrent to collusion between the United States and Taiwan.” The White House said Pelosi’s visit fit U.S. policy on Taiwan and should not be used to set off a crisis.
Taipei and Tokyo object
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry condemned China’s “irrational actions” and said Taiwanese forces were operating as usual. “We seek no escalation, but we don’t stand down when it comes to our security and sovereignty,” it said. Taipei says the drills amount to air and sea blockades that disrupt international shipping, aviation and trade. Its Foreign Affairs Ministry compared the launches to North Korean missile tests.
Japan went further on the numbers. Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said China appeared to have fired nine ballistic missiles and that five came down inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone. He called it “a serious problem that affects the security of Japan” and said Tokyo had lodged a complaint through diplomatic channels.
A wider alarm
Foreign ministers of the Group of Seven said on Wednesday that “there is no justification to use a visit as pretext for aggressive military activity in the Taiwan Strait.” China canceled a meeting between Wang and Japan’s foreign minister in Cambodia in response. ASEAN warned that the tension could lead to “miscalculation, serious confrontation, open conflicts and unpredictable consequences among major powers.”
China had already stepped up activity. On Wednesday it sent 27 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, two formations of which crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait. Such sorties happen almost daily, but usually in single digits.
No invasion looked imminent, though some experts said the Pelosi visit gave Beijing a chance to practice. Craig Singleton of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies said the exercises are meant to test whether China can blockade Taiwan, which would weigh heavily on whether it could sustain a longer campaign. Polls show most Taiwanese want to keep the status quo rather than join China.
Sources
- China launches 'unprecedented' live-fire drills encircling Taiwan in furious response to Pelosi's visit
- Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis
Sources
- Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis – Wikipedia
- China launches military drills around Taiwan after Pelosi visit
