News
China's drills continue
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) says China deployed 45 warplanes and 10 warships into areas around Taiwan on Tuesday. Sixteen aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line.The air force responded to the incursion by scrambling planes to monitor the Chinese aircraft, issuing radio warnings, and mobilizing air defence assets until they left the area.
MND officials say the military is continuing to expel all Chinese warships and warplanes found to be crossing the median line to ensure they do not enter Taiwan's territorial waters.The latestincursions come as Chinese military exercisesnear Taiwan are continuing.Chinese state media is reporting that Beijing has not provided a timetable for their conclusion.
Meanwhile foreign minister Joseph Wu says China's ambition goes way beyond Taiwan as the recent military drills demonstrated.At a press conference yesterday, Wu also saidthat the so-called Internet warriors from outside the country launched millions of attacks on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' and presidential office's websites during the four days of Chinese military exercises.He says the original attacks came from China and Russia, but those attackers seemed to have changedtheir tactics later on. During the peak time, the MOFA website endured some 170 million attacks per minute on the early morning of 5 and 6 August. Wu stresses that the websites were restored fully and quickly.
In related news, Wu says Taiwan's diplomatic ties with all of its allies remain solid, adding that he expects some senior officials and heads of state from those allies are planning to visit Taiwan in the near future.The statement comes amid concerns Beijing could seek to poach more of Taiwan's allies in retaliation for the visit last week by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and as it continues to carry out military exercises near Taiwan.Wu says he doesn't believe those exercises are solely related to Pelosi's visit - and the trip was an excuse to launch large scale military drills around Taiwan that had already been planned.
Wu says the missile launches, drone deployments, cyberattacks, and disinformation campaign need a relatively long lead time to prepare, which means Beijing has always been ready to carry out similar moves on Taiwan whether Pelosi visited or not. The foreign minister also says he believes the moves will backfire and lead to more senior officials from allies and like-minded countries visiting Taiwan soon to show their support amid rising cross-strait tensions.
