Taiwan’s military states that they are ready for an invasion from China similar to the one carried out by Russia in Ukraine. They announced this during an annual military exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday this week, according to Washington Post.
At the military exercise, they are said to have practiced deflecting a potential amphibious assault along the waterfront connecting Taipei Harbor and the Tamsui River, a location crucial to defending the capital Taipei.
The military invasion exercise comes at a time when tensions are high in the Taiwan Strait after China issued a warning to the US about invading Taiwan.
– Just talk about time
According to the plan, the Democrats’ powerful speaker in Congress, Nancy Pelosi, plans to visit Taiwan in August, and according to the Washington Post, this is the reason why China is now threatening the United States.
It has raised concerns that the situation between China and Taiwan could become the worst crisis since the 1990s.
EXERCISE: The military in Taiwan held an annual military exercise on Tuesday and Wednesday. This year, the forces are training to protect the capital Taipei from invasion. Photo: Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP/NTB
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– Careful monitoring
Pelosi is the third most powerful person in the United States, after the president and vice president. No such high-ranking US politician has visited Taiwan since 1997.
The drills are set up after “careful monitoring of the international situation as well as the war in Ukraine,” Sun Li-fang, spokesman for Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, said during the exercise, according to the Washington Post.
Warns: – The biggest threat
Li-fang added that although the visit by Pelosi was only hypothetical, the Taiwanese army is already “trained for China’s possible response”. The spokesman was also confident that Taiwan could handle whatever China decides to do.
Taiwan was established on the Chinese island of Formosa in 1949, following the Communist victory in the civil war on the mainland. China nevertheless believes that Taiwan is still part of China, and they consider Taiwan a rebel province. China therefore does not want Taiwan to gain a more independent status.
TANKS: During the military exercise, tanks were also used during the simulation of an invasion. Photo: REUTERS/Ann Wang
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Neither the government nor the people of Taiwan have shown any interest in submitting to the rule of the Chinese Communist Party.
For over a decade, China has tried to isolate Taipei, at the same time that they have strongly expressed that they do not want international visits to Taiwan from other countries’ leaders.
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Additional pressure
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden will speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping for the first time in four months, a US official said, according to the Reuters news agency.
According to the plan, the two presidents will talk about the Taiwan situation and the war in Ukraine.
The possibility that the leader of the House of Representatives, Biden’s party colleague Nancy Pelosi, will visit the disputed island has put further pressure on the complicated relationship between the superpower the United States and the challenger China.
Pelosi has not confirmed the visit, and Biden told the press last week that officials in the US defense think it is “not a good idea” to make such a trip now.
TRAVEL FEAR: Officials have said they fear Nancy Pelosi’s plane will be attacked by China if she flies to Taiwan. Photo: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File/NTB
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– Just talk about time
On Tuesday, a spokesperson from the Pentagon in the United States said that it’s only a matter of time before a massive accident happens if China continues to disrupt the airspace over the South China Sea.
– It is only a matter of time before there will be a massive accident if China continues with its irresponsible behavior at sea and in the air, says a spokesperson from the Pentagon, according to the Reuters news agency.
– Will change the world for everyone
On Tuesday, the United States accused China of making more provocations against rival territorial claims in the South China Sea and other countries operating there.
Jung Pak, assistant secretary for East Asia at the US State Department, told the Center for Strategic and International Studies that Chinese aircraft have increasingly disrupted the airspace of Australian aircraft in international airspace over the South China Sea, according to Reuters.
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