China begins conducting military exercises near Taiwan

China started practicing military exercises near Taiwan at the same time the island’s new president took office. The new president asked China to stop threatening Taiwan politically and militarily in his first speech.

The eastern part of China’s military is having war games with the air force, navy, and infantry until Friday. China’s state media said the military drills were meant to show that they will punish Taiwan for trying to become independent. This is because they see Taiwan’s new president as someone who wants to separate from China.

Taiwan sent air and sea forces to keep an eye on the military exercises, which its defense ministry called an unnecessary provocation that shows China’s controlling nature.

In March, Taiwan’s national security council said they thought China would start war games after Taiwan’s inauguration. China usually practices its military exercises during the summer and early fall. Beijing has also conducted military exercises before or after Taiwan’s last two inaugurations.

The drills happening until Friday are a reminder that China wants to control Taiwan and might invade to do so.

China did military exercises all around Taiwan and its smaller islands in 2022, after Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei. This made China very mad. Since that time, China has significantly increased its military threats against Taiwan, with almost daily air and sea patrols.

A recent study by the Brookings Institute found that in 2023, 7.4% more people were worried about a war between China and Taiwan compared to 2021.

As a reaction to China’s military threats, Lai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, led by its former president Tsai Ing-wen, has started making changes to the military and spending more money on it. They believe that these changes will stop China from invading by making it too expensive. Last year, they made young men serve in the military for one year instead of four months, and they allowed women to be in the reserve forces.

Lai is the son of a coal-miner who became a doctor and then went into politics. In 2017, when he was Taiwan’s premier, he made comments about being a worker for Taiwan’s independence, which has caused problems for him since then.

His first speech as leader of Taiwan didn’t change the current situation of not officially declaring independence. Most people in Taiwan prefer this ambiguous status over formally declaring independence. Many countries, like the United States, don’t consider Taiwan a separate country. This is because of a long-standing conflict between China and Taiwan, which started from a war a long time ago.

Lai said that Taiwan and China are not under each other’s control. This goes against China’s belief that Taiwan is part of its territory.

China’s main government office for dealing with Taiwan criticized Lai’s speech this week, saying it gave a dangerous message of wanting Taiwan to be independent.