China Steps Up Threat of Military Violence to Control Taiwan

Beijing on Wednesday reaffirmed its threat to use military force to bring self-governing Taiwan under its control amid large-scale Chinese military exercises that have raised tensions to their highest levels in years.

The statement from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and its news department followed nearly a week of rocket attacks and raids into Taiwan’s waters and airspace by Chinese warships and air force aircraft.

The actions disrupted flights and shipping in a region critical to global supply chains, prompting strong condemnations from the US, Japan and others.

An English-language version of the Chinese statement said Beijing would “work with the utmost sincerity and do our utmost to achieve peaceful reunification”.

“But we will not renounce the use of force, and we reserve the right to take all necessary measures. This is to protect us from outside interference and all separatist activities,” the statement said.

“We will always be ready to respond by force or other necessary means to interference from outside forces or radical action by separatist elements. Our ultimate goal is to ensure the prospects for a peaceful reunification of China and to advance this process” , it said.

Pelosi’s visit still reverberates in Beijing

China says the threatening moves were prompted by a visit to Taiwan last week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Taiwan says such visits are routine and that China was only using them as a pretext to make threats.

In an additional response to Pelosi’s visit, China said it is cutting off dialogue on issues from maritime security to climate change with the US, Taiwan’s main military and political supporter.

Taiwan’s foreign minister warned on Tuesday that China’s military exercises reflect its ambition to control large swathes of the western Pacific, while Taipei conducted its own exercises to underline its willingness to defend itself.

Beijing’s strategy includes controlling the East and South China seas through the Taiwan Strait and imposing a blockade to prevent the US and its allies from aiding Taiwan in an attack, Joseph Wu told a news conference in Taipei. .

Beijing has extended the ongoing exercises without announcing when they will end.

Taiwan split from the mainland during a civil war in 1949, and the island’s 23 million residents are overwhelmingly opposed to political unification with China, preferring to maintain close economic ties and the status quo of de facto independence.

Its maneuvers have brought China closer to Taiwan’s borders and may be trying to establish a new normal in which it could eventually control access to the island’s ports and airspace.

The US has also shown its willingness to confront China’s threats. Washington has no formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan out of deference to Beijing, but is legally obliged to ensure that the island can defend itself and treat all threats against it as serious concern.

That leaves open the question of whether Washington would send troops if China attacked Taiwan. US President Joe Biden has repeatedly said the country was obligated to do so, but staff members have quickly reversed those comments.

Geopolitical risks aside, a protracted crisis in the Taiwan Strait – a major artery for global trade – could have major implications for international supply chains at a time when the world is already experiencing disruptions and uncertainty in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

In particular, Taiwan is a vital supplier of computer chips to the global economy, including China’s high-tech sectors.

In response to the exercises, Taiwan has put its troops on alert but has so far refrained from taking active countermeasures.

On Tuesday, the military held live-fire artillery drills in Pingtung County on the southeast coast.