China launches drills around Taiwan in response to 'separatist acts', sending up heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te.
It sent up heavily armed warplanes and staged mock attacks as its state media denounced newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te three days after he took office. Taiwan 's defence ministry condemned the drills and dispatched forces to areas around the island.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, denounced Mr Lai's inauguration speech on Monday local time, when he called on China to stop its threats and said the two sides of the strait were "not subordinate to each other".Mr Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future and rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.
"The launch of military exercises on this occasion not only does not contribute to the peace and stability of the Taiwan Strait, it also highlights militaristic mentality," the ministry said. Taiwan's future can only be decided by China's 1.4 billion people, not just Taiwan's 23 million people, it added.A senior Taiwan official, speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters the drills were part of a scenario Taiwan had anticipated and that the island's government had a "comprehensive grasp" of Chinese military movements.
Chinese state media published a map of the drills zones, in five areas all around Taiwan and the islands Taiwan controls near the Chinese coast.
Taiwan Launch Drills Punishment Separatists Inagurated President Lai Ching-Te
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