Monday, December 30, 2024

China surrounds Taiwan in surprise ‘punishment’ military drills

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Mr Lai, from the Democratic Progressive Party, was elected in January in a poll that Beijing portrayed as a choice between war and peace.

Officials in Taipei have indicated they were preparing for new Chinese military movements around the timing of the inauguration.

In August 2022, China launched larger four-day live-fire exercises after it was angered by a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, the former US House speaker.

A Chinese military expert told Chinese state TV the drills were partly aimed at rehearsing an economic blockade of the island.

Zhang Chi, a professor at Beijing’s China National Defense University, said the drills aimed to “strangle” Taiwan’s critical Kaohsiung port to “severely impact” its foreign trade.

He added that they would cut off the country’s “lifeline of energy imports” as well as “block the support lines that some US allies provide to ‘Taiwan independence’ forces.”

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