After Pelosi’s visit: China continues maneuvers – Taiwan wants to react

China originally wanted to end its maneuvers on Sunday – but they continued at the beginning of the week. For its part, Taiwan also announced maneuvers and accused China of simulating the invasion of the island.

The Chinese military maneuvers off the Pacific island of Taiwan were originally supposed to end on Sunday, according to the leadership of the People’s Republic. However, China continued the maneuvers today.

In any case, there was another row between mainland China and Taiwan on Sunday. The reason for this is China’s claim that its warships have entered Taiwanese territorial waters. They would have been within twelve miles – that’s a little over 19 kilometers – of the coast. However, the Taiwanese Navy has rejected this, reports the newspaper “Focus Taiwan”. All Chinese warships were closely followed and none entered this zone.

Sun Li-fang, spokesman for the Defense Ministry, told PTS TV: “Our army continues to monitor the movements of several Chinese warships and drones in the Taiwan Strait. They simulate a real attack on the island of Taiwan and our naval fleet. We are already using a special surveillance system to keep a close eye on enemy movements, and have dispatched ships and aircraft in response.”

On Sunday alone, the communist regime used 66 planes and 14 warships, according to Taiwanese officials – and the maneuvers did not end at midday, as promised.

Taiwan condemns ‘unreasonable actions’

The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry in the evening strongly condemned the major neighbor’s latest provocations and called for such unreasonable actions to be stopped immediately. “China has ignored the international community’s criticism and concerns for days. Now it has also announced long-term military exercises in the China Sea, intentionally increasing tensions in the region,” it said.

Earlier, Taiwan had said that China was already practicing an invasion of the island and had appealed to the international community to condemn Beijing’s actions in the Indo-Pacific.

And despite the excitement of the past few days, there are also voices that view the provocations very soberly and objectively. Like Su Tzu-yun, director of the defense strategy and resources department of a Taiwan Ministry of Defense think tank. He assumes that if China actually wants to launch an “amphibious assault” – it would have to gather so many troops that it would not go unnoticed. “That means it’s only been a war of nerves so far.”

Possibly in order to reassure its own population, Taiwan now wants to start an extensive military exercise.

Incidentally, China’s maneuvers not only provoked Taiwan, but also Japan. Not only because it is said to have invaded its exclusive economic zone. In addition, ships also circled around Okinawa and the Senkaku Islands, called “Diaoyu” in Chinese. The Senkakus, which actually consist of nothing more than piles of stones, are administered by Japan and have rich fishing grounds.

Japan expands alliances

In parallel, Japan tried to forge geopolitical alliances elsewhere. During a visit to the Solomon Islands in the South Pacific, both countries spoke out in favor of closer cooperation.

The commitment is no accident. China is also expanding its power base there. The Solomon Islands only signed a comprehensive security agreement with the People’s Republic in May.