A senior government official said on Thursday ( 15 May ) that Taiwan cannot rule out China holding additional military exercises to” stir up trouble” around the one-year anniversary of President Lai Ching-te’s election.
Lai’s opening took place on May 20, but his office has not yet disclosed how the president may celebrate the occasion.
Lai has been rebuffed by China’s numerous offers for deals, and it calls him a” secessionist.” Lai refutes China’s claims of sovereignty over the political and independently run beach, arguing that only Taiwan’s citizens have the power to determine their future.
Liang Wen-chieh, the deputy head of the Mainland Affairs Council and director, stated at a regular press conference that China’s challenges to Taiwan had “become a normal state of affairs,” noting that China held drills soon after Lai assumed office last year.
We do not rule out the possibility that Chinese socialists may use military exercises to spread political propaganda on the celebration of President Lai’s opening, he said.
The government is Taiwan’s most influential figure for China policy.
The Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s Taiwan addressed Reuters regarding remarks made the day before.
A representative for the office responded to a question about the future celebration on Wednesday, claiming Lai was a” Taiwan Strait crisis maker” who had sparked more hostility and conflict and hampered stability. The comments were repeated by China’s defense department on Thursday.
Taiwan reported that China conducted yet another of its normal” combined combat readiness guards” around the island on Sunday, and that the defense ministry in Taipei has as noted a surge in Chinese martial activity, involving a total of 131 aircraft and 32 ships.
Over the past year, Lai has been subject to a number of “unfriendly” Chinese activities, including playing battle games, according to Liang.
We do not want to see the situation continue in this way, he said,” I did not say that the interactions between the two factors have been very good over the past year. They are indeed tense,” he continued.
” We hope that Chinese socialists won’t conduct military activities after May 20.”
China held war games around Taiwan last month with the codename” Strait Thunder-2025A,” with an” A” at the end, which suggested there might be more to come.
China held the May 2024 training” Joint Sword- 2024A” and” Joint Sword- 2024B” in October of that year.