TAIPEI: Taiwan’s military held an early morning air defence drill on Thursday ( Nov 28 ) to test its response and engagement procedures, ahead of a trip by President Lai Ching-te at the end of the week to the Pacific that will include United States stopovers.
China is likely to establish military training in the coming weeks near Taiwan, using Lai’s future trip to the Pacific and scheduled US travel as a justification, according to analyses by Taiwan and regional protection leaders.
China claims Taiwan as its own country and says Lai is a” separatist”. Lai says just Taiwan’s people may consider their potential and has consistently offered deals with Beijing that have been rebuffed.
Taiwan’s air power demand said in a speech that made no mention of Lai’s international trip that for a two-hour time starting from 5am aircraft, ships and missile systems were involved in an “overall air defence war program exercise”.
The drill was to” strengthen the overall effectiveness of air defence operations and to test the response and engagement procedures of the air defence forces”, it added.
” In the face of changes in the enemy situation, we will continue to enhance defence resilience through various practical training to anticipate potential threats and challenges and ensure air defence security,” the command said.
Lai will leave on Saturday. A formal announcement of his US stopovers could come as soon as Friday, according to sources.
Late on Wednesday, the presidential office said that if China were to use Lai’s trip as an excuse to launch military exercises, “it would be a blatant provocation of the status quo of peace and stability in the region”.
The same day, China’s government said such transit stops were “essentially provocative acts that violate the one-China principle”.
China has carried out two rounds of major war games around Taiwan so far this year.