A Chinese military exercise near Taiwan is “a provocation” and “dangerous,” said the Ministry of Defense in Taipei on Wednesday. According to the department Earlier that day 32 Chinese combat aircraft and various naval ships were observed. They would have held shooting exercises without warning, where sharp ammunition would have been used.
According to Taiwan, such an exercise can endanger the safety of shipping traffic and aviation. The operation took place more than seventy kilometers southwest of the island, off the coast of the large city of Kaohsiung, the largest seaport in the Taiwan.
China regularly holds military exercises around Taiwan, which it regards it as an apostate province that eventually has to be reunited with the mainland. In December it held the biggest navy exercise in almost thirty years at the island, in response to a journey by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te to Hawaii, among others. And earlier last year, China simulated a blockade of Taiwan twice.
Also in the Tasmanzee, between Australia and New Zealand, and off the coast of Vietnam China held shooting exercises this week.
Read also
Australia knew nothing about Chinese shooting exercises to warned a citizen pilot
Internet cable broken
Wednesday’s exercises follow on the news, Tuesday, that the Taiwanese coastguard would have caught a cargo ship when it destroyed a undersea data cable. The ship, which has a Chinese owner and crew under a Togolese flag, has been bobbing for a few days near the cables that connect the Penghu Islands, in the Taiwan street, with the main island. The ship did not respond to radio requests to leave. When the coast guard came to take a look, it turned out to be anchor. The food gone when the coast guard came closer, and not much later, telecom company Chungwha reported that a cable was damaged. The ship then led to a Taiwanese port, where the authorities investigate the case.
According to the Financial Times and Reuters news agency was already the ship before the incident on a blacklist from the Taiwanese authorities. It then registers what it regards it as a Chinese ‘shadow fleet’ of old cargo ships that are suspected of having the authorities in Taipei to have it for taiwans under -a -seater infrastructure.
Read also
Taiwan sees striking cable breaks in remote islands as a warning
Cable breaks such as Tuesday that occur regularly in the waters around Taiwan. Cables that take care of the internet and telephone connections of some Taiwanese islands groups that are just off the coast of the Chinese mainland are often damaged. Setup is usually not demonstrated.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs wanted to go into questions about the military exercises nor the cable break in his daily press conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday.