Beijing hits back at US with landing exercises in Taiwan strait

The country’s defence ministry condemned the US landing of a C-17 strategic transport as a ‘very vicious political provocation’.

While Washington said it chose to transport the trio in a C-17 Globemaster plane to accommodate Tammy Duckworth, a senator who uses a wheelchair after losing both her legs while serving in the Iraq war. Picture: AFP

The Chinese military conducted amphibious landing exercises off China’s southeastern coast, one day after the US landed a C-17 strategic transport aircraft on the self-governed island of Taiwan.

The drill in the Taiwan Strait – which is shared by the island and China – came as the country’s defence ministry condemned the US landing as a “very vicious political provocation”.

Wu Qian, the ministry’s spokesman, said on Tuesday: “If anyone dares to separate Taiwan island from China, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will give it a head-on strike and firmly defend national reunification and territorial integrity at all costs.”

China perceives Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to bring the island under its control, by force if necessary. In the face of increasingly worrying threats from Beijing, Washington is deepening its ties with Taiwan, with which it has a security pact.

On Sunday, three US senators arrived at the Taipei Songshan Airport in a military aircraft to announce America’s plan to donate 750,000 coronavirus vaccines to Taiwan.

While Washington said that it chose to transport the trio in a C-17 Globemaster plane to accommodate Tammy Duckworth, a senator who uses a wheelchair after losing both her legs while serving in the Iraq war, it fuelled speculation that it was picked to provoke Beijing. China condemned the move.

On Tuesday, the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said its most recent manoeuvres were devised to improve amphibious combat capabilities for the military.

Song Zhongping, a military expert, told the Global Times, a party-run newspaper, that the exercise was not necessarily connected to the landing of the US military plane in Taiwan but that the Chinese military must enhance its combat readiness to win wars against Taiwanese secessionists and their supporters.

THE TIMES