Taiwan raises alarm over Chinese military drills. It claims they could accidentally spark an “uncontrollable conflict” that could draw in countries around the globe.
Fox News Sunday’s Joseph Wu, Taiwanese Foreign Minister, stated that “the Chinese military exercises these couple of days were very serious.” “If you take a look at the sorties by the Chinese air force and the ships, it’s very close to Taiwan. Any accident could lead to an uncontrollable conflict between Taiwan and China. It could also be the beginning of a great-scale war if other countries try to intervene.
These comments came as large-scale Chinese military drills entered their third and final day Monday. The Chinese military declared that it was “ready to fight” for Taiwan if it attempted to declare independence from China.
According to The Associated Press, the military stated Monday that “The theater’s soldiers are ready to fight at every time and can fight any form of Taiwan independence’ or foreign interference attempts.”
China’s drills were similar to the ones it ran in August when Taiwan was visited by Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who came on the heels of a meeting between Taiwanese officials, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Similar to the August incident, multiple warships or planes crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. This boundary was for decades understood by both sides as a border that military forces shouldn’t cross, for fear of war. In recent military drills, China disregarded the boundary and claimed that the line was “imaginary”.
Wu stated that recent drills had shown that China’s threats to Taiwan have increased. He argued that it is crucial that the U.S. continue to support Taiwan to prevent aggression from the mainland.
“If you look at the Chinese military threat against Taiwan, is increasing, that diplomatic assault against Taiwan is also being increasing,” Wu said. “Therefore, for the United States, lawmakers, or the administration to show support for Taiwan, it is very critical. And this time around, we saw a tremendous show of support coming from the U.S. Congress.”
