The live-fire military exercises organized by China around Taiwan after the visit to the island of the President of the US Legislature, Nancy Pelosi, enter their second day today after long-range missile launches were recorded on Thursday.
Attention is focused this Friday on the two aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy, the Liaoning and Shandong, which have not been sighted at the moment participating in the maneuvers but are not in their base ports either.
Yesterday’s exercises, which involved the closure of the air and maritime space of six areas around the island, included firing practices with long-range artillery, with “multiple types of conventional missiles”, as well as the aerial deployment of dozens of aircraft military between fighters and bombers.
This is the first time that launches of this type have been recorded in the vicinity of Taiwan since the third Strait crisis between 1995 and 1997.
Analysts quoted by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post ventured that the People’s Liberation Army (EPL, Chinese Army) could today use bomber planes with long-range cruise missiles such as the CJ-20.
For the last three days, Taipei has denounced incursions by Chinese military planes into its self-defined Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), some of which would have crossed the middle line of the Strait.
From Taipei they have already denounced that ships and warplanes of the People’s Liberation Army have crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, which the island’s Ministry of Defense described as “strong provocation”. It happened around 11 in the morning (six hours more than in Madrid), when several “Chinese planes and ships were sighted in waters near Taiwan, some of them” crossing the median line.
This division functions as an unofficial but tacitly respected border for China and Taiwan, which are experiencing one of their most tense moments after the visit to the island on Wednesday by the president of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to whom Beijing He warned that he would respond forcefully.
The live-fire military exercises organized by China around Taiwan after the visit to the island of the President of the US Legislature, Nancy Pelosi, enter their second day today after long-range missile launches were recorded on Thursday.
Attention is focused this Friday on the two aircraft carriers of the Chinese Navy, the Liaoning and Shandong, which have not been sighted at the moment participating in the maneuvers but are not in their base ports either.
Yesterday’s exercises, which involved the closure of the air and maritime space of six areas around the island, included firing practices with long-range artillery, with “multiple types of conventional missiles”, as well as the aerial deployment of dozens of aircraft military between fighters and bombers.
This is the first time that launches of this type have been recorded in the vicinity of Taiwan since the third Strait crisis between 1995 and 1997.
Analysts quoted by the Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post ventured that the People’s Liberation Army (EPL, Chinese Army) could today use bomber planes with long-range cruise missiles such as the CJ-20.
For the last three days, Taipei has denounced incursions by Chinese military planes into its self-defined Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), some of which would have crossed the middle line of the Strait.
From Taipei they have already denounced that ships and warplanes of the People’s Liberation Army have crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, which the island’s Ministry of Defense described as “strong provocation”. It happened around 11 in the morning (six hours more than in Madrid), when several “Chinese planes and ships were sighted in waters near Taiwan, some of them” crossing the median line.
This division functions as an unofficial but tacitly respected border for China and Taiwan, which are experiencing one of their most tense moments after the visit to the island on Wednesday by the president of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, to whom Beijing He warned that he would respond forcefully.
The president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, described in the last few hours the Chinese maneuvers as an “irresponsible act” that fuels tensions in the Indo-Pacific, she demanded restraint from Beijing and asked for the support of the international community. She also said that Taiwan will not contribute to the escalation of tensions but will defend its sovereignty.
China, which described Pelosi’s visit as a “farce” and “deplorable betrayal”, claims sovereignty over the island and considers Taiwan a rebellious province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949, after losing the civil war against the Chinese. communists
US footsteps
From Washington, the maneuvers are seen as a “significant escalation” of tension in the area and that is why it has been decided to leave the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier near the island to monitor the situation, confirmed Thursday John Kirby, one of the spokesmen. from the White House. The government of Joe Biden, however, has decided to postpone tests with intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) scheduled for this week, but they will be carried out in the “near future,” Kirby explained at the daily White House press conference.
As Kirby explained, the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier and other ships that are part of its battle group plan to carry out air and sea operations in the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.
Hours earlier, Chinese state media had assured that the US ship – initially moved to the area to escort Pelosi – had withdrawn and headed northeast, “hundreds” of kilometers from Taiwan.
“Beijing’s provocative actions are a significant escalation in the actions the Chinese government has long taken to change the status quo,” Kirby said. However, Biden prefers to adjust his steps, because the “temperature is very high” with China and he wants to demonstrate with “actions what they say in words”, that is, that he has no intention of provoking tensions with Beijing and that his policy of almost half a century to Taiwan has not changed.
Kirby considered that China has used the visit of the Democrat Pelosi to “overreact” and increase tension with actions that he believes will continue in the coming days and weeks.
Beijing’s response to Pelosi’s controversial trip has provoked numerous international reactions, including that of the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, who is following “closely and with concern” the Chinese military maneuvers, according to his spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric. .
Japan’s complaint
The Japanese government has also formally protested to Beijing over the alleged fall of five Chinese ballistic missiles in waters belonging to Japan’s special economic zone (EEZ). Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida received this Friday