Taiwan does not intend to give in to China’s military activities

Published on : 10/05/2021 – 10:11

Taiwan does not intend to come under Chinese pressure. The small island state must remain alert to China’s excessive military activities that violate regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Tuesday (October 5th), the day after 56 Chinese aircraft passed through defensive airspace. of the democratic island, a record.

In four days, from Friday to Monday, some 148 Chinese army planes crossed Taiwanese airspace in the south of the island, Taipei said.

Chinese provocations

China regards Taiwan as a renegade province and does not rule out the use of force to bring it back into its fold. The island emphasizes its independence and wants to defend its freedoms and democracy.

The multiple Chinese military maneuvers are decried by Taipei as a form of war intended both to test the Taiwanese army by forcing it to be used to monitor Chinese aircraft, and to test the measures implemented by the island.

“Taiwan must remain on the alert. China is showing more and more excess,” Su Tseng-chang told reporters in Taipei. “The world has also seen China’s repeated violations of regional peace, as well as the pressure on Taiwan.”

President Tsai Ing-wen, who has made the modernization of the Taiwanese army a priority, said in a column published Tuesday that seeing the island fall into Beijing’s hands would have “catastrophic” consequences for peace in Asia.

Authoritarian drifts

“This would signal that in the current opposition of values ​​in the world, authoritarianism takes precedence over democracy“she wrote in Foreign Affairs, stressing that Taiwan would do everything to defend itself against a possible attack.

A delegation of French senators, led by former Defense Minister Alain Richard, is expected in Taiwan this week, despite opposition from China, a spokeswoman for the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

Paris has no formal diplomatic ties with Taipei, but has in the past sold arms to the island.

With AFP