MISSILES OVER TAIWAN
China’s drills involved a “conventional missile firepower assault” in waters to the east of Taiwan, the Chinese military said.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said the Chinese army “flew more than 100 warplanes including fighters and bombers” during the exercises, as well as “over 10 destroyers and frigates”.
State broadcaster CCTV reported that Chinese missiles had flown directly over Taiwan.
Japan also claimed that of the nine missiles it had detected, four were “believed to have flown over Taiwan’s main island”.
Taipei’s military said it would not confirm missile flight paths, in a bid to protect its intelligence capabilities and not allow China “to intimidate us”.
“TEMPERATURE’S PRETTY HIGH”
China’s ruling Communist Party views Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to one day take it, by force if necessary.
But the scale and intensity of the drills have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.
“China has chosen to overreact and use the speaker’s visit as a pretext to increase provocative military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait,” John Kirby, a White House spokesman, told reporters.
“The temperature’s pretty high,” but tensions “can come down very easily by just having the Chinese stop these very aggressive military drills”, he added.
Japan lodged a formal diplomatic complaint against Beijing, with five of the missiles believed to have landed in its exclusive economic zone.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida called China’s exercises a “serious problem that impacts our national security and the safety of our citizens” and called for an “immediate cancellation of the military drills”.
But Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the “flagrant provocation” by the United States had set an “egregious precedent”.
TRADING PLACES
The manoeuvres are taking place along some of the busiest shipping routes on the planet, used to supply vital semiconductors and electronic equipment produced in East Asian factory hubs to global markets.
Taiwan’s Maritime and Port Bureau has warned ships to avoid the areas being used for the Chinese drills.
“The shutting down of these transport routes – even temporarily – has consequences not only for Taiwan, but also trade flows tied to Japan and South Korea,” Nick Marro, the Economist Intelligence Unit’s lead analyst for global trade, wrote in a note.
Taiwan said the drills would disrupt 18 international routes passing through its flight information region while several international airlines told AFP they would divert flights.
Analysts broadly agree that despite all its aggressive posturing, Beijing does not want an active military conflict against the United States and its allies over Taiwan – just yet.
“The last thing Xi wants is an accidental war ignited,” Titus Chen, an associate professor of political science at the National Sun Yat-Sen University in Taiwan, told AFP.
Source: Channel News Asia
