China shipped this Friday for the second day in a row military ships and aircraft near Taiwanindicated the authorities of this island, whose president outraged Beijing by meeting with the leader of the US House of Representatives.
Three warships sailed into the waters near the self-governing island and a fighter plane and an anti-submarine helicopter entered the air defense identification zone, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said.
The day before, Taiwan detected three ships and a helicopter near its territory.
On Wednesday, the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong passed through the southeast of the island, hours before the Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen meets with Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles.
On the other hand, China announced this Friday new military exercises in the Taiwan Strait off Pingtan County on April 10as reported by the Fujian Provincial Maritime Administration (southeast) in a statement collected by the news agency Bloomberg.
President Tsai Ing-wen returned to Taipei on Friday after visiting Guatemala and Belize, two of the 13 countries that maintain relations with the island.
“We have shown the international community that Taiwan is more united in dealing with pressure and threats,” President Tsai told reporters. “We will not stop interacting with the world, despite the obstacles,” she insisted.
Beijing had warned against Tsai’s meeting with McCarthysecond US authority in the line of presidential succession, and on Thursday he assured that he would take “firm and effective measures to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
China views this self-governing and democratic island as part of its territory and advocates regaining its control, even by force if necessary.
The Asian giant insisted on Friday that the island remains an “inseparable part of China.” “Taiwan’s future depends on reunification with the motherland,” stressed the spokeswoman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mao Ning.
In recent years, China has tried to isolate the territory on the international scene and is furious when Taiwanese authorities maintain contacts with representatives of other countries.
In August, the visit to Taipei of Nancy PelosiMcCarthy’s predecessor, prompted the deployment of unprecedented military maneuvers by the Chinese army around the island.
In Pingtan, the closest Chinese island to Taiwan, journalists from the AFP They saw this Friday how they also transited through the strait a military ship and at least three helicopters.
It was not immediately clear if the moves were an intensification of Beijing’s usual patrolling of the area.
China also imposed sanctions against Taipei’s de facto ambassador to the United States, Hsiao Bi-khima conservative American institute and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, which hosted the meeting.
Taiwan condemned the sanctions and accused Beijing of trying to “further eliminate our country’s international space.”
(With information from AFP and EP)
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Source-www.infobae.com