Communist China conducted its largest military drills around Taiwan in weeks on Wednesday, which comes just days after Taiwan once again elected a president that has vowed to confront China.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that China’s military conducted air and naval operations near the island nation last night with 24 planes and five ships.
“The security and prosperity of the Taiwan Strait region are closely related to global development and stability, and are obligations and responsibilities that all parties in the region must share,” Taiwan said in a statement. “The military will continue to strengthen its self-defence capabilities by enemy threats and self-defence needs, and respond to regional threats.”
The military exercises come after Taiwan elected Lai Ching-te of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) last week to become the island nation’s next president. His victory marks the first time that a political party in Taiwan has won a third straight presidential election, Bloomberg News reported. The DPP has vowed political independence from China and views Taiwan as its own sovereign nation.
“This is a night that belongs to Taiwan. We managed to keep Taiwan on the map of the world,” Lai told supporters after winning. “The election has shown the world the commitment of the Taiwanese people to democracy, which I hope China can understand.”
His election victory came despite warnings from China that Taiwan will be reunited with it either through elections or through the Chinese military invading the country.
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A spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs lashed out after the election, saying that it does not matter “whatever changes take place in Taiwan, the basic fact that there is only one China in the world and Taiwan is part of China will not change.”
“The one-China principle is the solid anchor for peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” the spokesperson added. “We believe that the international community will continue to adhere to the one-China principle and understand and support the Chinese people’s just cause of opposing ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist activities and striving to achieve national reunification.”
Fears of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan have increased significantly in recent years due to a variety of reasons, including but not limited to: China making serious investments in its military, China’s economy not being in good shape, and weakness from the Biden administration.
The Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro warned in an op-ed this week that if President Joe Biden is not polling well against whoever becomes the Republican Party’s presidential nominee, China could view their window for launching an invasion as closing and thus launch an invasion in the coming months.
