Two Chinese military helicopters fly past a PLA naval tug as seen from Pingtan Island, the closest point to Taiwan, in China’s southeastern Fujian province on April 7, 2023. The United States says it’s closely monitoring Chinese exercises around Taiwan after Beijing began a three-day military exercise around the island.
Greg Baker | AFP | Getty Images
China began a second day of exercises around Taiwan on Sunday as the island’s defense ministry reported multiple air force sorties and said it was monitoring the movement of Chinese missile forces, just as the United States said it was watching.
China, which claims Taiwan is democratically governed as its own territory, began a three-day military exercise around the island on Saturday, a day after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a transient visit to the United States.
While a security source told Reuters that the majority of Saturday’s operations ended before sunset, Taiwan’s defense ministry said they resumed on Sunday, with the island’s military spotting multiple aircraft, including Su-30 and J-11 fighter jets, in addition to ships.
“Regarding the movements of the Chinese Communist Rocket Forces, the national military can be in close contact with a joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance system, and the air defense forces remain on high alert,” the ministry said.
The People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force of China is answerable for China’s land-based missile system.
Last August, following a visit to Taipei by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China staged war games around Taiwan, including launching missiles into the waters near the island, although no similar exercises have been announced this time.
While in Los Angeles last week, on what was officially counted as transit on her way back from Central America, Tsai met with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, despite Beijing’s warnings against it.
The de facto U.S. embassy in Taiwan said Sunday that the United States is closely monitoring Chinese exercises around Taiwan and is “comfortable and confident” that it has sufficient resources and capabilities in the region to make sure peace and stability.
U.S. channels of communication with China remain open, and the U.S. has consistently called for restraint and not changing the established order, said a spokesperson for the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as an embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
Taiwanese fans hold placards during a rally in front of the Westin Bonaventure Hotel where Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen will spend the night before meeting Kevin McCarthy, Los Angeles, April 4, 2023.
Frederic J. Brown | AFP | Getty Images
Washington severed diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, but is legally obligated to supply the island with the means to defend itself.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to take control of the island, says Taiwan is the most significant and sensitive issue in its relationship with the United States, a subject that is commonly a source of tension.
Beijing considers Tsai a separatist and has rejected her repeated calls for talks. Tsai says that only the people of Taiwan can resolve their future.
Chinese fighters and warships
Over the past three years, China has increased military pressure on Taiwan by conducting regular missions around Taiwan, but not in its territorial airspace or over the island itself.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Sunday that it had detected 71 Chinese Air Force aircraft and nine navy ships around Taiwan in the past 24 hours.
The ministry released a map showing that about half of these aircraft, including Su-30s and J-11s, crossed the Taiwan Strait’s middle line, which has served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides for years.
Chinese state media reported that the planes were armed with live weapons. Taiwan Air Force jets normally carry live firearms as they fight to repel Chinese incursions.
Late on Saturday, Taiwan’s Oceans Council, which manages the Coast Guard, posted footage on its YouTube channel showing one of its ships tracking a Chinese warship, but didn’t provide the exact location.
“You’re seriously damaging peace, stability and security in the region. Please turn around and leave immediately. For those who proceed, we are going to take expulsion measures,” a Coast Guard officer radioed to the Chinese vessel.
One other footage showed a Taiwanese warship, Di Hua, accompanying a Coast Guard vessel in what a Coast Guard officer calls a “conflict” with a Chinese warship.
Despite this, civilian flights around Taiwan, including to Kinmen and Matsu, two groups of Taiwanese-controlled islands just off the Chinese coast, proceed as normal.
In August, civilian air traffic was disrupted after China declared effective no-fly zones in several blocks near Taiwan where it fired missiles.
Taiwan is attempting to resume exchanges stalled during the Covid-19 pandemic to point out goodwill to Beijing, including allowing flights to many Chinese cities to resume, but Beijing has complained that Taipei is moving too slowly.
The People’s Each day, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, commented that peace, development, exchange and cooperation are the “common aspirations” of people on each side of the Taiwan Strait.
“Compatriots on each side of the strait have the same roots and the same culture. They’re a family whose blood is thicker than water. Each profit from peace, each profit from cooperation.