Taipei/Beijing (Reuters)-Taiwan is determined to defend himself and protect his free way of life, said the island’s Minister of Defense on Thursday, addressing next month’s annual exercises, while China’s military promise to increase combat readiness to prevent “separatist” activities.
China, which considers Taiwan as its own territory, has increased its military threats in the last five years, conducting several rounds of war games and sending their forces daily to the skies and to the water near the island.
Speaking to a committee created by President Lai Ching-Te to increase resistance to a possible Chinese attack, Defense Minister Wellington Koo, described the annual exercises Han Kuang de Taiwan, which start next month.
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Military exercises will start with rehearsals to combat possible “high -intensity raids in the gray zone” by China, evolving into an attack, and Taiwan’s armed forces will practice the repulsion of a Chinese landing, Koo said.
High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (Himars), manufactured by Lockheed Martin, will be used in Han Kuang for the first time, along with the Sky Sword Terra-Ar missiles developed in Taiwan, he added.
The exercises “will allow the international community to know that we are determined to defend and transmit to China that the country’s armed forces have confidence and ability to defend a free and democratic life,” said Koo.
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Early on Thursday, the Ministry of Defense reported that China had made another “joint patrol of prompt combat” involving war ships and 21 military aircraft around Taiwan, including SU-30 fighters.
China classifies Lai as a “separatist” and the government expressed more angry after he made two speeches this week saying that Taiwan has his own sovereignty and that China has no historical or legal base to claim it.
China’s Ministry of Defense spokesman Zhang Xiagang said the distortion of history and the “evil doctrine” of Lai “totally exposed his sinister intention to provoke and increase the confrontation between the Taiwan Strait.”
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“The popular liberation army will not tolerate the separatist acts of Taiwan’s independence, will continue to strengthen its military training and its preparation for combat and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said at a press conference.
Beijing never renounced the use of strength to put the island under its control, and any attack on Taiwan could trigger a broader regional war.
Lai and his government vehemently oppose the claims of sovereignty of China, saying that it is up to the people of the island to decide their future.
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(Report by Yimou Lee and Laurie Chen; additional report by Ben Blanchard in Taipei)
