China continued missile launches and air deployment on Friday of dozens of military aircraft around Taiwan. The Taiwanese government claimed that Chinese forces crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait.
The missile launches and the Chinese air deployment are part of the military maneuvers that the People’s Liberation Army has been carrying out since yesterday and until next Sunday around Taiwan, as a result of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the Taiwanese island. The president of the United States Congress is the first high-ranking president to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
Secondly, The Chinese Foreign Ministry accused Pelosi and her direct relatives on Friday of ignoring China’s concern and firm opposition to her trip to Taiwan and of undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Asian country.. this past thursday, the Chinese government described Pelosi’s visit as a farce and a deplorable betrayal in the face of her warnings not to set foot on Taiwanese soil.
China, which regards Taiwan as part of its territory, viewed Pelosi’s visit as a provocation. According to the Chinese government, the principle of one China was not respected, which constitutes for the Asian giant a common identity for all its dependencies and is one of the estates on which its foreign policy is based. China, which has not ruled out invading Taiwan since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949, responded to Pelosi’s visit with a show of force not seen since the mid-1990s, when the then Taiwanese president traveled to the US.
The military exercises, which the official news agency of china XinhuaNewsAgency, called joint blockade operations, are carried out on some of the busiest sea lanes on the planet, through which essential electronic material from factories in Southeast Asia transits to world markets. The Taiwan Maritime and Port Office issued warnings for the ships that circulate in this area and several international airlines would divert their flights to avoid the island’s airspace.
The unofficial border between China and Taiwan
For its part, The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense denounced that ships and warplanes of the People’s Liberation Army crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait on Friday, which functions as an unofficial border but is tacitly respected by China and Taiwan. The military exercises, which take place in six areas around the island, effectively surrounding it, included long-range firing practices with conventional missiles, in addition to the aerial deployment of fighters and bombers.
“The Chinese military has dispatched 68 planes and 13 ships for activities in the Taiwan Strait, some of which have crossed the border of the security zone and jeopardized the ‘status quo’ of the strait.“, published the Ministry of Defense on its Twitter account.
The median line is an unofficial but so far generally accepted border, halfway between the coasts of mainland China and those of Taiwan. The boundary is in the middle of the Taiwan Strait, just 130 km apart at its narrowest point. During periods of heightened tension, Chinese ships or planes crossed the line, drawing recriminations from the Taiwanese government.
The imaginary border was conceived during the Cold War, to delimit and try to reduce the risks of confrontation between the People’s Republic of China and the Republic of China (official name of Taiwan), where in 1949 the nationalist troops defeated in the civil war settled. China. No agreement or treaty cemented its status, but over the decades, it gave the Taiwanese and Chinese armies the ability to keep a safe distance.
The president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, described the Chinese maneuvers as an irresponsible act that fuels tensions in the Indo-Pacific, demanded restraint from Beijing and asked for the support of the international community. He also said that Taiwan will not contribute to the escalation of tensions, but will defend its sovereignty. The Taiwanese leader, who belongs to an independence party unlike the previous government, refuses to recognize that the island and the mainland are part of the same China.
“We condemn these acts that disturb our air space and our waters, and we will continue to guarantee that our freedom and our democracy are free from threats,” the Ministry of Defense said on Twitter. On the other hand, he made it clear that his goal is not to increase tensions and rivalries. “We do not seek an increase in hostilities or become enemies of others, only to protect our people”added the Taiwanese state body.
The Taiwanese foreign minister, for his part, defended Pelosi’s visit to the island. “The visit of an important leader like Pelosi is relevant. To raise Taiwan’s profile and let the international community understand that it is a democracy,” the minister said. “We want to maintain the ‘status quo’, which is that Taiwan has no jurisdiction over mainland China and they have no jurisdiction over us, that is the reality.”added the minister.