{"id":3811,"date":"2022-08-09T16:02:22","date_gmt":"2022-08-09T10:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/?p=3811"},"modified":"2022-08-09T16:02:22","modified_gmt":"2022-08-09T10:02:22","slug":"taiwan-holds-military-drill-as-china-accused-of-preparing-invasion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/world\/2022\/08\/09\/news\/3811\/","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan holds military drill as China accused of preparing invasion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Taipei\u2019s drill started in the southern county of Pingtung shortly with the firing of target flares and artillery, ending just under an hour later. (Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

FENGGANG TOWNSHIP, Taiwan, Broadcasting News Corporation : Taiwan held an artillery drill Tuesday simulating a defense against an attack as its top diplomat accused Beijing of preparing to invade the island after days of massive Chinese war games. China launched its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan last week in a furious response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island in decades. Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views its neighbor as part of Chinese territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary. \u201cChina has used the drills and its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,\u201d Joseph Wu told a press conference in Taipei on Tuesday, accusing Beijing of using Pelosi\u2019s visit as a pretext for military action. \u201cChina\u2019s real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and entire region,\u201d he said. Taipei\u2019s drill started in the southern county of Pingtung shortly with the firing of target flares and artillery, ending just under an hour later, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan\u2019s Eighth Army Corps. Soldiers fired from howitzers tucked into the coast, hidden from view of the road that leads to popular beach destination Kenting. The drills, which will also take place Thursday, included the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzers, the army said. On Monday, Lou said the drills had been scheduled previously and were not in response to China\u2019s exercises. The island routinely stages military drills simulating defense against a Chinese invasion, and last month practiced repelling attacks from the sea in a \u201cjoint interception operation\u201d as part of its largest annual exercises. The anti-landing exercises come after China extended its own joint sea and air drills around Taiwan on Monday, but Washington said it did not expect an escalation from Beijing. \u201cI\u2019m not worried, but I\u2019m concerned they\u2019re moving as much as they are. But I don\u2019t think they\u2019re going to do anything more than they are,\u201d Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base. China has not confirmed if its drills in the Taiwan Strait will continue Tuesday. But Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu condemned Beijing for extending its military exercises around the island, accusing them of trying to control the Taiwan Strait and waters in the wider Asia-Pacific region. \u201cIt is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber-attacks, a disinformation campaign and economic coercion in order to weaken public morale in Taiwan,\u201d he said. Wu went on to thank Western allies, including the US after Pelosi\u2019s visit, for standing up to China. \u201cIt also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not bow to the intimidation of authoritarianism,\u201d he said. Taiwan has insisted that no Chinese warplanes or ships entered its territorial waters \u2014 within 12 nautical miles of land \u2014 during Beijing\u2019s drills. The Chinese military, however, released a video last week of an air force pilot filming the island\u2019s coastline and mountains from his cockpit, showing how close it had come to Taiwan\u2019s shores. Its ships and planes have also regularly crossed the median line \u2014 an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that the former does not recognize \u2014 since drills began last week. Ballistic missiles were fired over Taiwan\u2019s capital, Taipei, during the exercises last week, according to Chinese state media. On Tuesday, the Chinese military released more details about the anti-submarine drills it had conducted a day earlier around the island. The People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s Eastern Theater command said the exercises were aimed at enhancing the ability of air and sea units to work together while hunting submarines. It said maritime patrol aircraft, fighter jets, helicopters and a destroyer practiced locating and attacking targets in the waters off Taiwan. The scale and intensity of China\u2019s drills \u2014 as well as its withdrawal from key talks on climate and defense \u2014 have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies. The drills have also shown how an increasingly emboldened Chinese military could carry out a gruelling blockade of the island, experts say. But Beijing on Monday defended its behavior as \u201cfirm, forceful and appropriate\u201d to American provocation. \u201c(We) are only issuing a warning to the perpetrators,\u201d foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing, promising China would \u201cfirmly smash the Taiwan authorities\u2019 illusion of gaining independence through the US.\u201d \u201cWe urge the US to do some earnest reflection, and immediately correct its mistakes.\u201d News collected from ARAB NEWS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FENGGANG TOWNSHIP, Taiwan, Broadcasting News Corporation : Taiwan held an artillery drill Tuesday simulating a defense against an attack as its top diplomat accused Beijing of preparing to invade the island after days of massive Chinese war games. China launched its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan last week in a furious response to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3812,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3811"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3813,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3811\/revisions\/3813"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}