TAOYUAN, Taiwan: Taiwan Vice President William Lai returned on Friday from a sensitive visit to the United States, a trip China has condemned and which has brought warnings from Taiwanese officials it could prompt more Chinese military drills near the island.
“Because of everyone’s hard work, Taiwan’s power is stronger and stronger, and it showed the international community that Taiwan is a force for good, that the international community really pays great attention to Taiwan,” he said after returning to Taiwan’s main international airport at Taoyuan.
China claims Taiwan as its territory and has denounced the transit stops in the US, calling Lai a separatist and a “troublemaker.”
Taiwanese officials have said China is likely to conduct military exercises this week near the island, using Lai’s US stopovers as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of next year’s presidential election and make them “fear war.”
Democratically governed Taiwan has so far not reported any unusual Chinese military movements near the island.
Amid heightened tensions between the China and the US, Asia has seen a flurry of military posturing and joint drills on both sides in recent weeks.
On Thursday, Japan’s government reported 11 Chinese and Russian naval ships, including destroyers, had crossed waters between the southern Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako, a waterway crucial to access to the Pacific and East China Seas.
The islands lie directly to the east of Taiwan and Okinawa is home to a major US military base.
A person familiar with security planning in the region told Reuters the China-Russian fleet had conducted simulation attacks on US forces stationed in Okinawa as well as drills to seize strategic locations.
The US Ronald Reagan carrier strike group was also in the waters about 800 nautical miles (1,500 km) off Taiwan’s eastern coast as of Thursday evening, the person added.
A spokesperson at Japan’s Joint Staff Office said it was not aware of any such simulations by the Chinese and Russian fleets.
“They have not intruded into Japan’s territorial waters and we have not confirmed any dangerous behavior,” the spokesperson said.
“We have offered through diplomatic channels that the repeated joint actions of Chinese and Russian forces in the sea and airspace around Japan are a serious concern from a security perspective.”
Russia’s defense ministry said on Friday the Russian and Chinese ships “conducted anti-submarine drills, repelled an air raid by a mock enemy, trained for rescue operations at sea, and mastered skills for take offs and landings on decks of war ships.”
The US Navy’s 7th Fleet did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and neither did China’s Taiwan Affairs Office nor the Chinese defense ministry.
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On Friday, the Taiwan defense ministry’s official news agency put out a slickly produced publicity video showing fighters jets taking off and missiles being readied.
“Nobody can encroach on our sovereignty,” reads an accompanying caption for the video entitled “The military of the Republic of China is duty-bound to maintain regional peace and stability,” referring to Taiwan’s formal name.
Lai officially only made transits in the United States, first in New York and then in San Francisco, on his way to and from Paraguay to attend the new president’s inauguration in one of only 13 countries that maintains formal ties with Taipei.
While in the United States, he gave speeches to the Taiwanese community and met officials from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), a US government-run non-profit that handles unofficial relations.
Lai is frontrunner to be Taiwan’s next president at elections set for January. President Tsai Ing-wen cannot run again after two terms.
China especially dislikes Lai because of comments he has previously made about being a “practical worker for Taiwan independence,” though he has pledged on the campaign trail to maintain the status quo and offered talks with Beijing.
Speaking after stepping off his flight, Lai made only passing mention of his US stopovers, concentrating instead on Paraguay and pledges of support he received there.
“Thank you for your contributions to the country and to society,” he said, “allowing Taiwan to very progressively, self confidently and respectfully go into the international community, and winning the support of the international community.”
Taiwan vice president returns from sensitive visit to US
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Taiwan vice president returns from sensitive visit to US
- China claims Taiwan as its territory and has denounced the transit stops in the US
- Taiwanese officials said China likely to conduct military exercises this week near the island
Ethiopia’s prime minister accuses Eritrea of mass killings during Tigray war
- Landlocked Ethiopia says that Eritrea is arming rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport
- Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia’s government Tuesday for the first time acknowledged the involvement of troops from neighboring Eritrea in the war in the Tigray region that ended in 2022, accusing them of mass killings, amid reports of renewed fighting in the region.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, while addressing parliament Tuesday, accused Eritrean troops fighting alongside Ethiopian forces of mass killings in the war, during which more than 400,000 people are estimated to have died.
Eritrean and Ethiopian troops fought against regional forces in the northern Tigray region in a war that ended in 2022 with the signing of a peace agreement.
Eritrea’s Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel told The Associated Press that Ahmed’s comments were “cheap and despicable lies” and did not merit a response.
Both nations have been accusing each other of provoking a potential civil war, with landlocked Ethiopia saying that Eritrea is arming and funding rebel groups, while Eritrea says Ethiopia’s aspiration is to gain access to a seaport.
“The rift did not begin with the Red Sea issue, as many people think,” Ahmed told parliamentarians. “It started in the first round of the war in Tigray, when the Eritrean army followed us into Shire and began demolishing houses, massacred our youth in Axum, looted factories in Adwa, and uprooted our factories.”
“The Red Sea and Ethiopia cannot remain separated forever,” he added.
Ethiopia lost sovereign access to the Red Sea when Eritrea seceded in 1993 after decades of guerrilla warfare.
Gebremeskel said the prime minister has only recently changed his tune in his push for access to the Red Sea.
Ahmed “and his top military brass were profusely showering praises and State Medals on the Eritrea army and its senior officers. … But when he later developed the delusional malaise of ‘sovereignty access to the sea’ and an agenda of war against Eritrea, he began to sing to a different chorus,” he said.
Eritrea and Ethiopia initially made peace after Abiy came to power in 2018, with Abiy winning a Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts toward reconciliation.
In June, Eritrea accused Ethiopia of having a “long-brewing war agenda” aimed at seizing its Red Sea ports. Ethiopia recently said that Eritrea was “actively preparing to wage war against it.”
Analysts say an alliance between Eritrea and regional forces in the troubled Tigray region may be forming, as fighting has been reported in recent weeks. Flights by the national carrier to the region were canceled last week over the renewed clashes.
