By Oyintari Ben
China claims that Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is pushing the island nation into “stormy seas” after Beijing conducted military drills in retaliation for Tsai’s recent visit with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
Tsai asserted that Taiwan’s foreign visit, which included a meeting with McCarthy in the US and stops in Guatemala and Belize, demonstrated to the rest of the world Taiwan’s will to uphold freedom and democracy.
The visit angered Beijing, which organised days of military exercises to demonstrate its ability to reclaim the self-governing island China claims as its own.
Tsai’s repeated requests for discussions have been rejected by China, which sees her as a separatist. Tsai declares that she wants peace but that if Taiwan is attacked, her government will protect it.
“Tsai Ing-wen brought danger to Taiwan. Tsai Ing-wen almost completely sided with the United States, pushing Taiwan into stormy seas,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said on Wednesday.
According to Zhu, the exercises in the vicinity of Taiwan were “a serious warning against the collusion and provocation of Taiwan’s independence separatist forces and external forces.”
Tsai said the trip had garnered support against an aggressor endangering the island’s freedom. She arrived back in Taiwan a day before the drills started.
Tsai met with Canadian parliamentarians at her office in Taipei and said, “Through this trip, we again sent a message to the international community that Taiwan is determined to safeguard freedom and democracy, which won acknowledgement and support from our democratic partners.”
Despite China declaring on Monday that the three days of drills had concluded as planned, Beijing has kept up military operations near Taiwan.
On Wednesday morning, the Taiwanese defence ministry reported that in the previous 24 hours, 35 Chinese military aircraft and eight naval vessels had been spotted flying over Taiwan.
According to a chart released by the ministry, 14 planes had crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, which typically acts as an informal border between the two sides.
Although Chinese fighters have previously only sporadically crossed the median line, since conducting war drills close to Taiwan in August, following the visit to Taipei of then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the country’s air force has done so frequently.
China claims that it does not acknowledge the line’s existence.
China’s claims of sovereignty are categorically rejected by Taiwan’s government, which asserts that only Taiwan’s citizens have the authority to choose Taiwan’s future.
