BEIJING —
China’s largest-ever military exercises surrounding Taiwan were drawing to a
close on Sunday following a controversial visit last week to the self-ruled
island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
اضافة اعلان
Beijing has
raged at the trip by Pelosi — the highest-ranking elected US official to visit
Taiwan in decades — ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements
with Washington, most notably on climate change and defense.
It has also
deployed fighter jets, warships, and ballistic missiles around Taiwan in what
analysts have described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of the
island.
Those exercises
were set to end Sunday, though Beijing has not con-firmed their conclusion.
Taiwan’s
transport ministry said six of the seven “temporary danger zones” China had
warned airlines to avoid ceased to be in effect as of noon on Sunday, signaling
a partial drawdown of the drills.
It said the
seventh zone, in waters east of Taiwan, would remain in ef-fect until 10am
local time (2am GMT) on Monday.
“Relevant
flights and sailings can gradually resume,” the ministry said in a statement.
Taipei said some
routes were still affected in the seventh area, and authorities would continue
to monitor ship movements there.
Beijing has also
announced fresh drills in the Yellow Sea — located between China and the
Korean peninsula — to take place until August 15.
Earlier on
Sunday, Beijing conducted “exercises in the sea and air-space surrounding
Taiwan Island as planned”, the Chinese military’s Eastern Command said.
Taipei’s defense
ministry confirmed China had dispatched “planes, vessels, and drones ...
simulating attacks on Taiwan’s main island and on ships in our waters”.
Beijing also
sent drones over Taiwan’s outlying islands, it added.
‘Jeopardising’
peace
In response, Taiwan said it
had mobilized a “joint intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance system to
closely monitor the enemy situa-tion” as well as sending planes and vessels.
Su Tseng-chang, Taiwan’s premier, said China is
“barbarously using military action” to disturb peace in the Taiwan Strait.
“We call on the
Chinese government not to go around
wielding its military power, showing its muscles everywhere, and jeopardizing
the peace of the region,” he told reporters Sunday.
Taipei’s foreign ministry said the drills threatened
“the region and even the world”.
An anonymously authored opinion piece published
Sunday by state broadcaster CCTV said that after these exercises, China’s
military would be able to stage “regular” training drills east of the median
line.
That line is an unofficial demarcation in the Taiwan
Strait that Beijing does not recognize.
To show how close it has got to Taiwan’s shores, the
Chinese military released a video of an air force pilot filming the island’s
coastline and mountains from his cockpit.
The Eastern Command also shared a photo it said was
of a warship on patrol with Taiwan’s shoreline visible in the background.
Ballistic missiles were also fired over Taiwan’s
capital during the drills, according to Chinese state media.
‘A dangerous opponent’
Taiwan has remained defiant
throughout China’s saber-rattling, insisting it will not be cowed by its “evil
neighbor”.
But experts have warned the drills have revealed an
increasingly emboldened Chinese military capable of carrying out a grueling
blockade of the island as well as obstructing US forces from coming to its aid.
“In some areas, the (Chinese military) might even
surpass US capabilities,” Grant Newsham, a researcher at the Japan Forum for
Strategic Studies and a former
US Navy officer, told AFP.
“If the battle is confined to the area right around
Taiwan, today’s Chinese navy is a dangerous opponent — and if the Americans and
Japanese do not intervene for some reason, things would be difficult for
Taiwan.”
The scale and intensity of China’s drills — as well
as Beijing’s withdrawal from key talks on climate and defense — have triggered
outrage in the US and its allies.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington
was “determined to act responsibly” to avoid a major global crisis.
China should not hold talks on issues of global concern such
as climate change “hostage”, Blinken said, as it “doesn’t punish the US, it
punishes the world”.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
