Taiwan accuses China of trying to influence elections through military drills

ROC Central News Agency

08/19/2023 07:36 PM

Taipei, Aug. 19 (CNA) Taiwan's Presidential Office on Saturday condemned military exercises China conducted near the island nation, which it said caused disorder in the region and were an attempt to influence Taiwan's elections next year.

The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Saturday launched joint air and sea patrols, and navy and air force military exercises near Taiwan proper, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND).

Citing an anonymous spokesperson from China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO), the Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency issued a strongly-worded statement on Saturday morning criticizing Vice President Lai Ching-te's (è³´æ¸…å¾·) stopovers in the United States during his Aug. 12-18 trip to Paraguay, Taiwan's only diplomatic ally in South America.

The stopovers, according to the TAO spokesperson, were an attempt by Lai to pursue Taiwan independence by seeking U.S. backing, Xinhua reported.

In a statement, the Presidential Office rejected the Xinhua article. It is a long-standing practice for Taiwan's presidents and vice presidents to have stopovers in the U.S., and China should not use this as a pretext for its provocations, the office said.

China's recent provocative behavior in and around the Taiwan Strait is an attempt to influence the presidential and legislative elections next year and has caused tension in the region, it said.

The military exercises came on the heels of the trilateral summit between U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol at Camp David. The leaders issued a post-summit joint statement to "reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as an indispensable element of security and prosperity in the international community."

Beijing, meanwhile, has deliberately ignored its responsibility to the international community and used Lai's trip as an excuse to escalate tensions and disrupt regional stability which will further erode its credibility in the international arena, the Presidential Office said.

The office assured the public that the nation's armed forces and national security apparatus has been closely monitoring the PLA movement near Taiwan, and that the country is capable of safeguarding its national security.

It urged China to immediately stop disrupting regional stability and to refrain from creating trouble in the international community.

The MND on Saturday condemned the PLA for conducting military exercises and patrols near Taiwan, calling such actions "irrational" and "provocative."

The ministry said the PLA flew 42 warplanes near Taiwan between 9 a.m.-12:50 p.m. Saturday, including 26 that crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension.

In addition, eight PLA ships conducting joint combat readiness patrols were detected around Taiwan during that period, according to the MND.

According to a message shared by the PLA Eastern Theater Command on social media, the military exercises were conducted in the sea and air north and southwest of Taiwan and included submarine-related drills, as well as exercises to establish air and sea control.

Meanwhile, Su Tzu-yun (è˜‡ç´«é›²), a scholar with the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research (INDSR), said the intent behind the PLA's military exercises was three-fold: To respond to the trilateral summit underlining the importance of peace in Taiwan Strait, to react to the U.S. Navy deploying the USS Ronald Reagan carrier strike group (CSG) in waters off Taiwan's east coast during Lai's visit to Paraguay, and to distract the disgruntled Chinese public from China's flagging economy.

According to Su, the drills China staged near Taiwan were actually related to concurrent drills by the PLA and Russia's military near Japan, which China called "joint strategic patrols" instead of "joint combat readiness patrols," as it called the drills conducted near Taiwan.

The true intent behind these military exercises was to respond to the U.S. deploying the USS Reagan CSG near Taiwan, and displeasure over "Taiwan independent separatists" was merely an excuse for staging the drills, Su said.

In addition, China's real estate crisis, rising unemployment rate, and ailing economy have all provided the impetus for Beijing to hold the drills as an outlet for public discontent.

By framing the drills near Taiwan as a response to Lai's stopovers in the U.S., China is using cognitive warfare to divide Taiwanese society, which must demonstrate unity if it is to build up defense resilience, Su said.

(By Sean Lin, Wu Sheng-hung and Wen Kuei-hsiang)

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