BEIJING/TAIPEI: Chinese military drills near Taiwan are targeted at forces promoting the island’s formal independence and are a “just” move to protect peace, China said on Wednesday, as Taiwan’s president reiterated her government would not bend to pressure.
Beijing also said the exercises are aimed at interference by external forces.
Military tensions with China, which claims Taiwan as its own territory, are at their worst in more than 40 years, Taiwan’s defense minister said last week, adding China will be capable of mounting a “full scale” invasion by 2025.
He was speaking after China mounted four straight days of mass air force incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone that began Oct. 1, part of a pattern of what Taipei views as stepped up military harassment by Beijing.
Speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the cause of current tensions was Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) “collusion” with foreign force and “provocations” over seeking Taiwan’s independence.
Chinese drills are aimed at this collusion — a veiled reference to US support for Taiwan — and separatist activities, protecting the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity as well as peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, he added.
“They are absolutely just actions,” Ma said.
“The DPP authorities’ hyping of the so-called ‘military threat’ of the mainland is to completely invert right and wrong, and a bogus accusation,” he added.
“If the DPP authorities obstinately persist in going about things the wrong way, and do not know how to draw back from the edge, it will only push Taiwan into a more dangerous situation.”
Taiwan says it is an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name, and will defend its freedom and democracy.
Despite Ma’s comments, both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen made relatively conciliatory speeches at the weekend, even as Xi vowed to bring Taiwan under its control and Tsai said they would not be forced to bow to China.
Xi did not mention a desire for peace and dialogue with China.
Tsai, speaking at a regular party meeting later on Wednesday, reiterated that the government has never “slacked off” when presented with China’s military threats but has also never “advanced rashly.”
“I also want to repeat that we will never succumb to pressure. Strengthening national defense by ourselves is the government’s top priority,” she added.
China: Military drills near Taiwan a ‘just’ move to protect peace
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China: Military drills near Taiwan a ‘just’ move to protect peace
- Beijing also said the exercises are aimed at interference by external forces
- China mounted four straight days of mass air force incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone
More than 9,000 flights canceled as major winter storm bears down across much of US
- “Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X
DALLAS: More than 9,000 flights across the US set to take off over the weekend have been canceled as a major storm expected to wreak havoc across much of the country threatens to knock out power for days and snarl major roadways.
Roughly 140 million people were under a winter storm warning from New Mexico to New England.
The National Weather Service forecast warns of widespread heavy snow and a band of catastrophic ice stretching from east Texas to North Carolina.
Forecasters say damage, especially in areas pounded by ice, could rival that of a hurricane.
Ice and sleet that hit northern Texas overnight were moving toward the central part of the state on Saturday, the National Weather Service in Fort Worth said.
“Dangerously cold temperatures and wind chills are spreading into the area and will remain in place into Monday,” the agency said on X.
Low temperatures will be mostly in the single digits for the next few nights, with wind chills as low as minus 24 Celsius.
About 68,000 power outages were reported across the country at 8 a.m. ET, about 27,600 of them in Texas. Snow and sleet continued to fall in Oklahoma.
After sweeping through the South, the storm was expected to move into the Northeast, dumping about a foot of snow from Washington through New York and Boston, the weather service predicted.
Temperatures reached minus 34 C just before dawn in rural Lewis County and other parts of upstate New York after days of heavy snow.
Governors in more than a dozen states sounded the alarm about the turbulent weather ahead, declaring emergencies or urging people to stay home.
