An incursion by Chinese military aircraft into Taiwanese airspace would be considered “a first strike against the country,” Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said, the CNA news agency reported.
The minister made this statement this Wednesday, during a meeting of the National Defense Commission of the Legislative Chamber of the island.
“National defense is a red line for Taiwan,” he said, warning that “countermeasures” would be taken if the line was crossed.
Beijing responded to the August visit to the island by the leader of the House of Representatives of the US Congress, Nancy Pelosi, with military exercises that included live fire, with Chinese planes crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which in practice had been an unofficial border. tacitly respected by Taipei and Beijing in recent decades.
Chiu accused Beijing of “breaking” this agreement.
In the past year, Taipei has witnessed numerous incursions by Chinese military aircraft into its ADIZ (air defense identification zone), which is not defined or regulated by any international treaty and does not correspond to its airspace.
Chiu also explained that Taiwan will continue to buy weapons from the United States, the territory’s main arms supplier, “according to the needs” of the island.
China called Pelosi’s trip a “farce” and a “deplorable betrayal” and imposed trade sanctions on Taiwan, which described the military exercises as a “blockade.”
The minister said that various Taiwanese government agencies were evaluating the possibility of extending compulsory military service on the island “from four to 12 months.”
China insists on “reunifying” the People’s Republic with the island, which has been governed autonomously since the nationalists withdrew to that territory in 1949, after losing the civil war against the communists, and continued with the Republic of China, culminating in the transition to democracy in the 1990s.
Source: TSF
