Taiwan monitoring Chinese drill ahead of Tsai-McCarthy meeting
ROC Central News Agency
04/05/2023 03:29 PM
Taipei, April 5 (CNA) Taiwan's military is closely watching a Chinese drill in the Taiwan Strait that began Wednesday morning, less than a day before President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was scheduled to meet United States House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
China has objected to the meeting and said it would take "resolute measures" to safeguard its sovereignty, after ramping up its attempts at military intimidation of Taiwan following the visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan in August 2022.
The latest drill announced by China was labeled as a "joint cruise and patrol special operation" in the Taiwan Strait led by a patrol vessel.
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a statement Wednesday that its forces always keep close tabs on Chinese activity in the Taiwan Strait through its joint intelligence and surveillance system, and that no irregularities had been detected.
It said the ministry would continue to work closely with the Coast Guard Administration to monitor the latest activities of Chinese forces at sea and air in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait.
According to China's national broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), the drill was being led by the Haixun 06 (海巡06), the first large Chinese vessel designated to patrol the Taiwan Strait, and was joined by an undetermined number of vessels listed under China's maritime police agencies.
The CCTV report did not specify the exact location of the drill and when it was scheduled to conclude other than saying it was being held in the northern and central parts of the Taiwan Strait.
According to a marine chart that came with the report, however, the drill may not be limited to the Taiwan Strait. It highlighted two areas east and southeast of Taiwan's coast in the Pacific Ocean without identifying what they represented.
Local media reported that the two areas were among the areas China targeted with missiles when it retaliated against Pelosi's visit to Taiwan last August.
According to Chinese media reports, the Haixun 06 officially entered service on July 11, 2022 with the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration.
At 128 meters long, 16 meters wide and 7.9 meters deep, the vessel can hit a top speed of 23 knots and can cruise at sea for 60 days without external supplies, according to a press release issued by Fujian Maritime Safety Administration.
Earlier Wednesday, the MND reported that a total of 14 Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ) before the scheduled Tsai-McCarthy meet.
From 6 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday, 14 Chinese military jets and three warships were detected in areas around Taiwan.
Two of them -- a high-altitude, long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) Harbin BZK-005 used for reconnaissance purposes and a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane -- were found to have entered the southwestern part of the Taiwan's ADIZ.
But no Chinese military aircraft took the more provocative step of flying across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to the MND, and the number of flights and routes were not that different from Chinese air force movements in recent weeks.
The ministry did not release the flight paths of the other planes or identify or disclose the path of the three warships spotted in areas around Taiwan.
It noted, however, as it always does when talking about incursions of People's Liberation Army aircraft into Taiwan's ADIZ, that the military scrambled combat air and naval patrols and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese military aircraft and warships.
The latest incursions came after McCarthy's office announced Monday U.S. time that the House speaker will meet with Tsai.
It will be the third time a Taiwan president will have met with a U.S. House speaker since the Republic of China (Taiwan's official name) and the U.S. ended official diplomatic relations in 1979 and the first time the encounter takes place on U.S. soil.
The first meeting occurred in 1997 when Newt Gingrich met with President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in Taipei, and the second came in August 2022 when Nancy Pelosi met with Tsai, also in Taipei.
Beijing, which sees Taiwan as part of its territory, has objected to the encounter, warning that it would take "resolute measures" to protect Chinese sovereignty.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning (毛寧) reiterated Monday that Beijing strongly opposes "any form of official interaction and contact between the U.S. side and Taiwan authorities" and "will take resolute measures to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Following Pelosi's visit in August 2022, Beijing ramped its up maritime and missile activities near Taiwan and tried to blockade and bracket the island.
Those missions and subsequent repeated crossings of the median line of the Taiwan Strait by Chinese military aircraft represented an escalation in China's attempts at intimidation in the region.
(By Lee Ya-wen, Novia Huang, Frances Huang and Joseph Yeh)
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