Chinese Diplomat Clarifies Goals Of Military Exercises Around Taiwan

Beijing is conducting military drills around Taiwan to give a warning to the United States and teach a lesson to “Taiwanese separatists,” Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday.

“The measures that we took in response to US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s hasty visit to Taiwan are absolutely legitimate and justified,” he pointed out, when asked to confirm or deny statements that China was conducting the drills as part of preparations for a military invasion of Taiwan. “It is a warning for instigators and a lesson for Taiwanese separatists,” the diplomat added.

“There is only one China and Taiwan is its integral part,” Wang Wenbin emphasized.

Taiwan’s top diplomat Joseph Wu said earlier that China had taken advantage of Pelosi’s visit to Taipei to launch large-scale drills near the island, which, in his view, were aimed at changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan has been governed by its local administration since 1949 when the remaining Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled to the island after suffering a defeat in China’s civil war. Since then, Taiwan has preserved the flag and some other symbols of the Republic of China that had existed in mainland China before the Communists came to power. Beijing regards the island as one of its provinces and this position is supported by most countries, including Russia.