Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen has said on Tuesday Taiwan was not intimidated by China’s military drills, took place this week after the United States denounced the latest Chinese military officials as “coercion” as well as a threat to Taiwan stability.
According to Reuters news reports, Chinese People’s Liberation Army has stated the reconnaissance, warships and bombers have conducted some “necessary drills” on Monday around Taiwan, calling it a routine.
Tsai was speaking at a forum, co-hosted by the country’s ministry of foreign affairs to mark the 40th anniversary of US-Taiwan relations under the Taiwan Relations Act. The event was also attended by former US house of representatives speaker Paul Ryan.
Taiwan has scrambled its ships and jets in order to monitor Chinese military drills on Monday, Taiwan defence minister said, accusing China of “trying to change the status quo of the Taiwan Strait”.
Tsai stated, “As you may be aware, China’s armed forces yesterday sent a large number of military aircraft and naval vessels into our vicinity. Their actions threaten Taiwan and other-like minded countries in the region.”
She added, “These actions only serve to strengthen our resolve. Our military forces have the capacity, determination, and commitment to defend Taiwan and not allow coercion to dictate our own future.”
Tsai also said the US’ Donald Trump administration has notified the country of arms sale to Taipei, the training session of pilots at the Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
“It enhances their abilities to defend our air space. I want to express my appreciation to the U.S. government for the announcement,” she said.
Chinese military representative was quoted by a Chinese paper as saying the military drills were annual, which were the planned exercises that were “completely within the normal legal rights of a sovereign country”.