For three days, the Beijing regime decided, in protest after a meeting between the Taiwanese president and a senior American official, to simulate a complete blockade of the island.
High tension in the Taiwan Strait. For three days now, China has launched a series of military maneuvers around this neighboring island with the intention of intimidating local authorities and flaunting its military power.
Beijing, which claims again and again the island, is more and more threatening towards Taiwan. These latest military exercises were prompted by a meeting last week between the Taiwanese leader and a senior American official.
• Why such an attitude of China?
Since Saturday, the Chinese authorities have launched Operation “Joint Sword”, which consists of an exercise in “total encirclement” and blockade of Taiwan, maneuvers presented by Beijing as a “serious warning” to the authorities of the island. after the meeting of its president with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy.
It aims to establish Chinese capabilities to “take control of the sea, airspace and information (…) in order to create deterrence and total encirclement” of Taiwan, Taiwan television said on Saturday. Chinese state.
On Monday, Taiwan said it detected 11 Chinese warships and 59 aircraft around the island. For its part, the Chinese command of the Eastern theater of operations of the Army specified that the Shandong, one of the two aircraft carriers of China, “participated in the exercise of the day”.
During the weekend, fighter jets and warships also simulated targeted bombardments against the island, as part of this operation.
The last major deployment around the island took place last August: China engaged in unprecedented military maneuvers around Taiwan and fired missiles in response to a visit to Democrat Nancy Pelosi’s islandthen Speaker of the House.
• What are Beijing’s requirements?
Beyond this exercise, and Beijing makes no secret of it, China considers Taiwan to be a province of its country that it has not yet succeeded in unifying with the rest of its territory since the civil war of 1949.
This Monday, on the sidelines of these military exercises, the Chinese government also recalled that peace in the Taiwan Strait and the independence of the island are incompatible.
“Taiwan independence and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are mutually exclusive,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said during a regular briefing. “If we want to safeguard peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, we must firmly oppose any form of separatism for Taiwanese independence,” he added.
In addition, Beijing views with displeasure the rapprochement in recent years between the Taiwanese authorities and the United States which, despite the absence of official relations, provides the island with substantial military support.
On Saturday, President Tsai Ing-wen denounced China’s “authoritarian expansionism” and assured that Taiwan “will continue to work with the United States and other countries (…) to uphold the values of freedom and democracy”.
• What response from the West?
The United States, which called on Beijing for “restraint”, also seemed to want to show force: the American destroyer USS Milius carried out a “freedom of navigation operation” in a sector of the South China Sea on Monday claimed by Beijing.
“This freedom of navigation operation respected the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea,” the US Navy said in a statement, adding that the ship passed close to the Spratly Islands.
The ship passed within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of Mischief Reef, claimed by China and other countries in the region, she added. An “intrusion”, immediately denounced China.
For his part, refusing to “enter into a block-to-block logic”, Emmanuel Macron urges Europe not to “be a follower” of the United States or China on the question of Taiwan, in a daily interview. french economy The echoes published on Sunday.
“The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans should be followers” on the question of Taiwan “and adapt to the American rhythm and to a Chinese overreaction”, declares the French head of state, in this interview granted on Friday , during his trip to China.
