Taiwan accuses China of carrying out 'provocative' military patrol near island
TAIPEI: Taiwan accused China on Friday (Jun 6) of raising tensions in the region with a "provocative" military patrol involving warplanes and warships near the island, an unusual public rebuke in what are typically routine accounts of Chinese military activity.
Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has complained of repeated Chinese military drills and patrols nearby. Since President Lai Ching-te took office last year, China has held three major rounds of war games.
Taiwan's defence ministry said that starting mid-afternoon Friday, it had detected 21 Chinese military aircraft, including J-16 fighters, operating with warships to carry out "so-called joint combat readiness patrols" and "harass the airspace and seas around us".
"The Ministry of National Defence stresses that these acts are highly provocative, fail to pay proper attention to the maritime rights of other countries, bring anxiety and threat to the region, and blatantly undermine the status quo in the region," it said.
Taiwan regularly reports such Chinese "combat patrols", but does not generally attach such commentary to its statements.
COAST GUARD DRILLS
The patrol came one day after Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump spoke by telephone, with Xi telling Trump that the United States must "handle the Taiwan question with prudence".
This is "so that the fringe separatists bent on 'Taiwan independence' will not be able to drag China and America into the dangerous terrain of confrontation and even conflict", Xi said, according to a Chinese government read-out of the call.
China regularly calls Taiwan its most important and sensitive issue in relations with the United States, which is bound by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself.
China says democratically governed Taiwan is its "sacred territory" - a position the government in Taipei strongly rejects - and that it has a right to carry out drills in Chinese territory.
Lai, who last month marked a year in office, is hated by Beijing, which calls him a separatist and has rebuffed his repeated offers for talks.
Lai says only Taiwan's people can decide their future, and that the government is determined to ramp up defence spending and strengthen its military. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
On Sunday, Lai will attend drills in the southern city of Kaohsiung for Taiwan's coast guard, whose ships would be pressed into service in combat roles in the event of war with China.
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