China insisted on Monday it would never renounce the “use of force” to take control of Taiwan, after ending a day of military drills around the self-ruled island that Beijing said was a “stern warning” to “separatist” forces.
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as part of its own territory, deployed fighter jets, drones, warships and coast guard vessels to encircle the island in its fourth round of large-scale war games in just over two years.
The United States said China’s actions were “unwarranted” and risked “escalation” as it called on Beijing to act with restraint.
China declared the drills over at around 6:00 pm (1000 GMT), about 13 hours after they had begun.
“We sincerely strive for the prospect of peaceful reunification, but we will never promise to renounce the use of force and will not leave any space for ‘Taiwan independence’,” Ministry of National Defence spokesperson Wu Qian said soon after.
The exercises, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, “fully tested the integrated joint operation capabilities of its troops”, military spokesperson Captain Li Xi said in a statement.
President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, has been more outspoken than his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen in defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, angering Beijing, which calls him a “separatist”.
Lai vowed on Monday to “protect democratic Taiwan and safeguard national security”, while the defence ministry said it had dispatched “appropriate forces” in response to the drills.
Taiwan detected 125 Chinese aircraft, including fighter jets and drones from early morning to late afternoon, a defence ministry official said, describing it as a record for a single day. Seventeen warships were also spotted.
Outlying islands administered by Taipei had been put on “heightened alert”, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.
Beijing said its exercises served as a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.
The drills took place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island”, Li said earlier.
Their aim was to focus “on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas”, Li said.
The previous large-scale drills held in May, three days after Lai’s inauguration, were called “Joint Sword-2024A” and lasted two days.
– China coast guard ‘inspections’ –
China’s coast guard was also sent to conduct “inspections”, with a diagram released by the coast guard showing four fleets encircling Taiwan and moving anti-clockwise around the island.
The coast guard of the eastern province of Fujian — the closest area on the mainland to Taiwan — also said it conducted “comprehensive law enforcement patrols” in waters near the Taipei-controlled Matsu islands.
Taiwan said four “formations” of China coast guard ships had patrolled the island and briefly entered its restricted waters, but not its prohibited waters.
China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent years, sending warplanes and other military aircraft while its ships maintain a near-constant presence around the island’s waters.
“In the face of enemy threats, all officers and soldiers of the country are in full readiness,” Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Monday.
Lai convened a high-level security meeting over the drills, said Joseph Wu, secretary-general of the National Security Council, who described the exercises as “inconsistent with international law”.
He vowed in his National Day speech on Thursday to “resist annexation” and insisted that Beijing and Taipei were “not subordinate to each other”.
Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has long defended the sovereignty and democracy of Taiwan, which has its own government, military and currency.
– ‘Feel a bit numb’ –
Lieutenant Colonel Fu Zhengnan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, said in a video shared by state media that the drills could “switch from training to combat at any time”.
“If Taiwan separatists provoke once, the PLA’s operation around the island will make their first move,” Fu said, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.
Taiwan’s coast guard said on Monday it had detained a Chinese man on one of its outlying islands after a possible “grey zone intrusion”, referring to tactics that fall short of a direct act of war.
In Taipei, people appeared to be largely unperturbed.
“I won’t panic too much because they quite often have drills,” 34-year-old engineer Benjamin Hsiao told AFP.
“It’s not the first time in recent years anyway, so I feel a bit numb.”
And in Pingtan, mainland China’s closest point to Taiwan’s main island, one local said she hoped “we can live peacefully”.
“I don’t believe there will be a war, China is strong enough to prevent it now,” Hu Fengping, a restaurant owner, told AFP.
The dispute between China and Taiwan dates back to a civil war in which the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek were defeated by Mao Zedong’s communist fighters and fled to the island in 1949.
China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since then.
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