Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te (middle) watches a simulated mass casualty rescue train at an airforce base throughout an inspection of the troops as a part of Taiwan’s annual Han Kuang army drills in Hualien on July 23, 2024. (Photograph by Sam Yeh / AFP)
Taiwan stated Monday it had dispatched “applicable forces” in response to China’s announcement that it had launched army drills across the island, which Beijing claims as a part of its territory.
In a press release, Taiwan’s protection ministry condemned the “irrational and provocative conduct” and stated it had “dispatched applicable forces to reply accordingly to guard freedom and democracy, and defend the sovereignty” of Taiwan.
China’s protection ministry stated Monday it had despatched planes and ships round Taiwan as a part of army workouts, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, to “check the joint operations capabilities of the theater command’s troops.”
Taiwan stated Sunday it had detected a Chinese language plane service group to its south within the Bashi Channel, a waterway that separates the island from the Philippines, and was “prone to proceed into the western Pacific.”
It comes days after US State Secretary Antony Blinken warned China in opposition to taking motion in response to a speech by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in the course of the island’s Nationwide Day celebrations.
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Lai, who took workplace in Might, has been extra outspoken than his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen in defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, angering Beijing, which calls him a “separatist.”
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In his speech on Thursday, Lai vowed to “resist annexation” of the island, and insisted Beijing and Taipei had been “not subordinate to one another.”
China warned after the speech that Lai’s “provocations” would lead to “catastrophe” for the individuals of Taiwan.