Taiwan condemns China for conducting shooting drills off its coast

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Taiwan on Thursday condemned China’s military exercises after Beijing designated an area to conduct shooting drills off the self-governed island’s southwest coast.

China considers the island a renegade province to be taken by force if necessary and in recent years has increased military activity around Taiwan’s waters and airspace.

“China is the biggest troublemaker for regional peace and stability, and the sole and greatest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region,” Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

In Beijing, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian accused Taiwan of playing up what he called routine activity of China’s military, officially called the People’s Liberation Army.

“The comments made by the relevant authorities of Taiwan on the routine exercise and training activities of the PLA are purely hype-ups,” he said at a monthly news conference.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a 24-hour period it detected 45 aircraft, 14 navy vessels and one ship from the Chinese military operating around Taiwan, of which 34 had crossed into its waters and airspace.

Taiwan said that it “responded accordingly” without elaborating.

This comes after Taiwan said four Chinese coast guard boats entered into its waters near Kinmen island earlier this week, and that Taiwan dispatched its own boats to drive them away.

Xinhua, China’s state-run news agency, reported that senior Chinese official Wang Huning during an annual meeting about Taiwan had called for China to take the initiative in cross-strait relations and push toward the “reunification of the motherland.”

Taiwan this week also said it caught a Chinese-owned vessel severing an undersea cable and detained the ship. Beijing has accused Taiwan of exaggerating the situation before facts have been clarified in an attempt at “political manipulation.”