MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

China stages major military deployment around Taiwan

“Using Taiwan to contain China” is doomed to failure, Chinese officials warned

China resumed military maneuvers around the island of Taiwan following the presence in Taipei of yet another delegation of US lawmakers. After the visit by a group led lead by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this month, the new team was headed by Senator Ed Markey from Massachusetts.

 (Read also: https://en.mercopress.com/2022/08/15/more-us-lawmakers-land-in-taiwan-what-will-china-do )

New naval and air deployments around Taiwan were staged Monday after the surprise arrival of the Asia-Pacific chief within the Senate's Foreign Affairs Committee.

Beijing dubbed this trip a “grave violation” just 12 days after Pelosi provoked a harsh response, also with defiant military exercises.

“On Aug. 15, the Eastern Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army staged a joint multi-service combat readiness patrol and combat drills in the sea and airspace around Taiwan,” the Chinese military said in a press release. Beijing called the exercises “deterrence” against Washington and Taipei.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported 5 foreign warships in the area in addition to 30 warplanes, of which 15 flew over the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, the unofficial buffer zone. “We condemn the People's Liberation Army [of China] for endangering the peace and security of our region with the military exercise announcements,” a statement read.

Taiwanese armed forces “are monitoring military activities around our surrounding region, responding to every situation with professionalism,” the document further noted.

According to Taiwan's CNA news agency, various units of the Taiwanese armed forces have begun to review and analyze the tactics employed by the People's Liberation Army in its recent exercises “to adapt the response to the new possible military scenarios.”

Meanwhile, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian insisted that the presence of US politicians “flagrantly violates the 'One-China' principle and the three Sino-US joint communications, as well as China's sovereignty and territorial integrity” by sending the wrong signal to separatist forces while “exposing the true face of the United States as a disruptor and destroyer of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”

Wu said joint combat readiness patrols by various units of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater of Operations Command and actual combat drills in the waters and airspace around Taiwan Island are a resolute countermeasure and solemn deterrence to the provocation of U.S.-Taiwan collusion.

He also warned that “using Taiwan to contain China” would not prosper and that “soliciting US support to seek independence” only leads to self-destruction. “Any attempts and activities that go against the trend of history, go against the will of the entire Chinese people and seek to stop the process of China's reunification will ultimately end in failure,” Wu said.

China will take “firm and powerful measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity” in response to the US mission, added Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin, for which “some politicians in the United States defy the 'One-China' principle, but are doomed to failure.”