China simulated bombardments against Taiwan this morning, on the second day of the “Total Circuit” exercise scheduled for Monday and presented as a “serious warning” to the island, after a meeting between its president and a senior US official.
The operation, called ‘Joint Sword’, was denounced by Taiwan and the United States asked Beijing for “restraint”, assuring that they keep their communication channels with China “open”.
In an interview conducted before the maneuvers and published on Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron stressed the need “not to enter into a block-by-block logic.”
Europe must not “follow” the United States or China in Taiwan, Macron told the French business daily Les Echos.
The Chinese maneuvers began after a meeting, on Wednesday, in California, between the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, and the speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
Its goal is to gauge China’s ability to “seize control of the sea, airspace and information…in order to create a deterrence and total encirclement” of Taiwan, Chinese state television said on Saturday.
Today, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 11 Chinese warships and 70 aircraft around the island, a similar fleet to the one recorded on Saturday.
The ministry also said it was responding to the Chinese exercises “in a calm and collected manner”, adding that the fighter jets detected as of 4:00 p.m. local time (0800 GMT) were fighter jets and bombers.
The Chinese Army announced this Saturday two days of “combat readiness” military maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait, after the island’s leader passed through the United States, and assured that on Monday it will carry out exercises with live fire.
In response to this announcement, the island’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, stated that Taiwan is facing China’s “authoritarian expansionism”.
However, the United States warned that any unilateral action by China on Taiwan would pose a danger to world stability and urged China to show “restraint” in military exercises.
Source: TSF
