Beijing Calls Its Drills Over Taiwan A Combat Training
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Taiwan has complained on Tuesday over the proximity of repeated Beijing regime's military activity, including fighter jets and bombers entering its air defence zone.
Communist China described its military exercises near Taiwan as combat drills on Tuesday, hours before the arrival of senior former U.S. officials in Taipei on a trip to signal President Joe Biden’s commitment to Taiwan and its democracy.
On the same day Taiwan has complained over the proximity of repeated Chinese military activity, including fighter jets and bombers entering its air defence zone and a Chinese aircraft carrier exercising off the island, claimed by Beijing.
Twenty-five Chinese air force aircraft including fighters and nuclear-capable bombers entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Monday, the largest reported incursion by Taipei to date.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said Taiwan’s government and separatists were colluding with “external forces”, seeking provocation and to damage peace and stability.
The People’s Liberation Army’s organising of actual combat exercises in the Taiwan Strait is a necessary action to address the current security situation in the Taiwan Strait and to safeguard national sovereignty, spokesman Ma Xiaoguang said.
It is a solemn response to external forces’ interference and provocations by Taiwan independence forces, he added.
US Senior Politicians Visit Taiwan Today, April 13, 2020
The United States is Taiwan's strongest international backer, has watched tensions mount with growing alarm.
Former U.S. Senator Chris Dodd and former Deputy Secretaries of State Richard Armitage and James Steinberg arrive in Taiwan later on Wednesday, in what a White House official called a personal signal of the president’s commitment to Taiwan and its democracy.
They are due to meet Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Thursday that will confirm the strong commitment of the US to the sovereignty of the country. Tsai has repeatedly said Taiwan is an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.