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進入《TAIPEI TIMES》 China stages new drills following US visit
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin speaks at a news conference in Beijing yesterday. Photo: EPA-EFE
Staff Writer, with AFP and CNA
China staged fresh military drills around Taiwan yesterday, slamming another visit by US lawmakers to the nation days after a similar trip by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi triggered a furious response from Beijing.
The five-member congressional delegation, led by US Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts, met with President Tsai Ing-wen （蔡英文） yesterday.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army continues to train and prepare for war, resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and resolutely crush any form of Taiwan independence separatism and foreign interference attempts,” Chinese Ministry of National Defense spokesman Colonel Wu Qian （吳謙） said.
“We warn the US and the DPP authorities: Using Taiwan to contain China is doomed to failure,” Wu added, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party.
“China will take resolute and strong measures to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin （汪文斌） told a daily briefing yesterday after Beijing announced the new drills.
“A handful of US politicians, in collusion with the separatist forces of Taiwan independence, are trying to challenge the one China principle, which is out of their depth and doomed to failure,” he said.
In Taipei, the Ministry of National Defense vowed to face the latest drills “calmly and seriously, and defend national security.”
“Apart from expressing condemnation [of China’s drills], the Ministry of National Defense will comprehensively monitor China’s movements in sea and air space around the Taiwan Strait,” it said.
China on Sunday deployed 22 warplanes and six warships into areas around Taiwan, with 10 of 22 aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait median line, the defense ministry said.
Taiwan monitored the situation with combat air patrols, naval vessels and land-based missile systems, it added.
The median line has been treated as an unofficial border on both sides of the Strait, with a breach indicating a more aggressive posture than the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s frequent sorties into Taipei’s air defense identification zone over the past two years.
Beijing has made similar deployments every day since Aug. 4, when it launched live-fire military drills in six maritime zones around Taiwan.
Meanwhile, Taiwan’s Aviation and Special Forces Command is tomorrow scheduled to hold live-fire exercises in Pingtung County involving AH-64E Apache and AH-1W Super Cobra helicopters, said a military official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Joint exercises are to be held by the navy and air force in waters northeast and southwest of Taiwan on Thursday and on Aug. 24, the official said, adding that the army plans to conduct its annual exercises on Sept. 5, also in Pingtung.
新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES
