China simulated targeted bombings against Taiwan on Sunday, the second day of a “total encirclement” exercise scheduled until Monday and presented by Beijing as a “serious warning” to the island after a meeting of its president with a senior US official. Called “Joint Sword”, the operation was denounced by Taiwan and the United States called on Beijing to “restraint”, ensuring that it kept its channels of communication with China “open”.
In an interview carried out before the maneuvers and published on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need not to “enter into a block-to-block logic”. Europe must not “be a follower” of the United States or China on Taiwan, he told the French business daily Les Echos.
11 warships and 70 Chinese aircraft
The Chinese maneuvers were launched after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met Wednesday in California with Speaker of the House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy. They aim to measure China’s ability to “take control of the sea, airspace and information (…) in order to create deterrence and total encirclement” of Taiwan, Taiwan television said on Saturday. Chinese state.
On Sunday, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said it had detected 11 Chinese warships and 70 aircraft around the island, an armada broadly similar to that recorded on Saturday. He said fighter jets and bombers were among the aircraft spotted by his “intelligence and reconnaissance system”. Also on Sunday, the Chinese military simulated “precision strikes” against “key targets on the island of Taiwan and surrounding waters”, involving dozens of aircraft and ground troops, according to Chinese television. ‘State. Destroyers, fast missile launchers, fighter planes, tankers and jammers are mobilized for the Chinese maneuvers.
“I am a bit worried”
“I’m a little worried, I would be lying to you if I told you otherwise,” Donald Ho, 73, told AFP on Sunday, met in a park in Taipei. “If there is war, both sides will suffer greatly.” China regards Taiwan, which has a population of 23 million, as a province it has yet to successfully reunite with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The maneuvers “serve as a serious warning against collusion between separatist forces seeking Taiwanese independence and outside forces, as well as their provocative activities,” Chinese military spokesman Shi Yi said.
Washington reiterated its call on Saturday “not to change the status quo”. “We are confident that we have sufficient resources and capabilities in the region to ensure peace and stability,” the State Department said.
“Largely symbolic”
Live-fire exercises will be held Monday in the Taiwan Strait near the coast of Fujian (east), the province facing the island, according to local Chinese maritime authorities. These exercises, which have an “operational” dimension, are intended to demonstrate that the Chinese army will be ready, “if the provocations intensify”, to “settle once and for all the question of Taiwan”, judge with the AFP military expert Song Zhongping. AFP did not see any increased military activity Sunday on the northern coast of Pingtan, near where the live-fire exercises are to take place.
Along a road overlooking the ocean, Lin Ren plays the Chinese anthem while selling coffee in the back of his car. “I think they (the exercises) clearly show them that we have the means (…) to unify” the territory, the 29-year-old told AFP. “I do not fear that there will be an armed conflict this time”, he adds, however, judging the maneuvers “largely symbolic”.
“Score points politically”
On Saturday, President Tsai Ing-wen denounced China’s “authoritarian expansionism” and assured that Taiwan “will continue to work with the United States and other countries (…) to uphold the values of freedom and democracy”. China views with displeasure the rapprochement in recent years between the Taiwanese authorities and the United States which, despite the absence of official relations, provides the island with substantial military support. For Beijing, these military exercises are “a necessity” to “score points politically” with the Chinese population, told AFP James Char, expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang University of Technology in Singapore.
However, an escalation of the same intensity as that of August 2022 seems a priori ruled out, according to James Char. Last summer, China engaged in unprecedented military maneuvers around Taiwan and fired missiles in response to a visit to the island by Democrat Nancy Pelosi, then House Speaker. The United States recognized the People’s Republic of China in 1979 and should in theory have no official contact with the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the “one China principle” defended by Beijing.