Taipei to send military planes and ships to counter Chinese activities in Taiwan Strait

ANI |
Update: 04 May 2021 22:43 STI

Taipei [Taiwan], May 4 (ANI): As China steps up its gray area tactics against Taiwan, Taipei has announced that it will send military planes and ships to counter Chinese military activity near its borders.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said Beijing was conducting electronic warfare and reconnaissance operations, but Taiwan had put in place countermeasures, Taiwan News reported.
He added that the country’s contingency planning takes into account the effect on future surveillance and counter-reconnaissance missions, Liberty Times reported. The military is able to handle any threat that presents itself, Chiu said.
Since mid-September last year, Beijing has stepped up its gray area tactics by regularly sending planes into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), with most cases occurring in the southern corner. western area and usually consisting of one to three slow-flying turboprop airplanes.
In recent months, Taiwan has reported Chinese warplane incursions into ADIZ almost daily.
Meanwhile, China has said its military activities in the Taiwan Strait are targeting “separatists” in Taiwan and “outside forces”.
“[We] fully prepared to fight against the separatist activities of Taiwan independence and interference from outside forces, ”Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said as quoted by the South China Morning Post.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of nearly 24 million people located off the southeast coast of mainland China, despite the two sides having been governed separately for more than seven decades.
Taipei, on the other hand, has thwarted Chinese aggression by increasing its strategic ties with democracies, including the United States, which Beijing has repeatedly opposed. China has threatened that “Taiwan independence” means war.
China recently ordered three warships, including a large amphibious assault ship, adding them to the fleet covering the South China Sea.
The Global Times newspaper, which is affiliated with the Communist Party of China, reported that the ships were the country’s first Type 075 amphibious assault ship, a large destroyer, and a nuclear strategic missile submarine.
Countries like Japan and the United States have spoken of the need for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Earlier this month, during their first face-to-face meeting at the White House, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and US President Joe Biden said in their joint statement that they “underline the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait “and” encourage the peaceful resolution of cross-strait issues (ANI)