Associated Press — Thursday 11 August 2022
BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday renewed its threat to attack Taiwan following almost a week of war games near the island. Taiwan has called Beijing’s claims to the self-governing democracy “wishful thinking” and launched its own military exercises. “Taiwan’s collusion with external forces to seek independence and provocation will only accelerate their own demise and push Taiwan into the abyss of disaster,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said. China’s attempt to intimidate the Taiwanese public and advertise its strategy for blockading and potentially invading the island was nominally prompted by a visit to Taipei by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The US, Japan and allies have denounced the exercises, with the Group of Seven industrialised nations issuing a statement expressing concern. On Wednesday, Britain’s government summoned Chinese Ambassador Zheng Zeguang to the Foreign Office to demand an explanation of “Beijing’s aggressive and wide-ranging escalation against Taiwan.”
China sent planes and ships across the midline in the Taiwan Strait — which has long been a buffer between the sides that separated amid civil war in 1949 — and fired missiles into the strait and over the island into the Pacific Ocean. In a lengthy policy statement on Taiwan issued Wednesday, China discarded a pledge not to send troops or government officials to Taiwan that was contained in previous statements. Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said the statement was “full of wishful thinking, and ignores the facts,” adding: “The authorities in Beijing deceive themselves. We warn the Beijing authorities to immediately stop threatening Taiwan with force.” Taiwan placed its military under high alert during the Chinese drills and held artillery drills off its southwestern coast facing China, illustrating the challenges the PLA would face were it to launch an invasion across the strait.