The defense portfolio of the island territory notified, as on Saturday, a significant displacement of Beijing units in the vicinity of the territory in what is supposed to be the final day of the military exercises. Despite not having been made official in this regard, Taipei regularized air transfers as of Monday. Chinese media reported that war practices will be “regular” from this week.
Within the points of conflict that the world is suffering at the moment, the one that China and Taiwan are leading is surrounded by uncertainty given that this Sunday, August 7, it is estimated that it will be the last day of war movements in the vicinity of the island territory, but not there is a formal certainty.
At first, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense reported that the scene in the vicinity of the island was similar to yesterday, with 22 planes and 14 ships carrying out combat simulations at six points around it.
However, this afternoon, the agency increased the number of air units involved to 66, the highest number since China began the activities as one of the retaliation for the visit of Nancy Pelosi -speaker of the United States House of Representatives. – to Taiwan.
Although Beijing is used to making practice moves, there has never been a precedent where it violated the Strait of Formosa, the unspoken border between the two nations. In quantity and using live fire and ballistic missiles, this opportunity is more serious harassment because they are covering more territory than usual.
The Taiwanese military portfolio reacted by displacing F-16 fighter planes and ships to respond “appropriately” to the Asian giant’s intimidation.
Although there is no official statement from China, this is expected to be the last of four scheduled days of drills. The official Xinhua agency had published on Thursday that the completion was scheduled for noon on Sunday. However, a member of Chinese state television reported that these actions will be “regular” from now on.
Without being sure that Beijing has concluded its exercises, the Taiwanese Ministry of Transport announced that it will gradually lift the preventive restrictions it imposed in recent days to prevent passenger planes from passing through the airspace used by the military.
In addition, he added that they will continue to divert flights and ships from one of the drilling zones off their coast until Monday morning.
As reported by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post, since Thursday more than 900 intercontinental flights were diverted to other routes and another 200 ended up being cancelled.
The United States charged that this escalation was disproportionate and aimed at changing the status quo. “They are provocative, irresponsible and increase the risk of miscalculation,” said a White House spokesman.
While China responded that its link with Taiwan is an internal matter and warned Washington not to “act rashly”. During a visit to Bangladesh on Sunday, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that Taipei was not part of the United States, but part of China.
As part of the response to Pelosi’s visit, the Xi Jinping government has halted dialogue with its US counterpart in a number of areas, including contacts between military commanders and on climate change.
With EFE and Reuters
Source: France 24