Taiwan’s Coast Guard arrested the Chinese man on June 9 after his boat collided with vessels in the Tamsui River. File photo
| Photo Credit: AFP

A former Chinese naval captain arrested for illegally entering Taiwan by boat was formally charged on Wednesday, but prosecutors said “no military or national security involvement” was linked to his act.

The man, surnamed Ruan, was picked up by Taiwan’s coast guard in June after his vessel collided with other boats on the Tamsui River.

Officials said he was one of 18 purported defectors from China seen over the past year or so.

They all claimed to admire Taiwan’s “democratic way of life”, authorities said, who also warned they could not rule out the possibility the incursions were a test of the island’s defences by China.

Mr. Ruan, 60, reportedly told coast guard officers that he wanted to “defect”. The Shilin District Prosecutors Office on Wednesday charged him with violating a law governing relations with China and also for entering Taiwan without permission.

China has in recent years ramped up military and political pressures on the island, while Beijing has severed all top-level communications since 2016.

Taipei:

China ended two days of war games around Taiwan in which it simulated attacks with bombers and practiced boarding ships, exercises that Taiwan condemned as “blatant provocation” on Saturday, detailing a surge of Chinese warplanes and warships.

Chinese state television’s military channel said late on Friday the drills had concluded. A commentary in the official People’s Liberation Army Daily said they had lasted for two days from Thursday to Friday, as previously announced.

China’s defence ministry did not answer calls seeking comment on Saturday.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, launched the “Joint Sword – 2024A” exercises three days after Lai Ching-te became Taiwan’s president, a man Beijing calls a “separatist”.

Beijing said the exercises were “punishment” for Lai’s Monday inauguration speech, in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “not subordinate to each other”, which China viewed as a declaration the two are separate countries.

Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims. Taiwan’s government has condemned the drills, saying it will not be cowed by Chinese pressure.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 62 Chinese military aircraft and 27 navy ships on Friday, including 46 planes that crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides.

Chinese aircraft, including advanced Su-30 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, flew in the strait as well as into the Bashi Channel that separates Taiwan from the Philippines, the ministry said.

On Friday it published footage taken by Taiwanese air force planes of a Chinese J-16 fighter and an H-6 but did not say exactly where it was taken.

Taiwan’s presidential office on Saturday that China’s military moves had undermined the peaceful and stable status quo in the Taiwan Strait.

They “also constitute a blatant provocation to the international order, and have aroused serious concern and condemnation from the international community”, it said in a statement.

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, whose forces carried out the drills, released a video on its social media accounts on Saturday called “A six-word rhyme on smashing independence”, set to stirring martial music.

The words “advance, surround, lock-down, attack, destroy and cut-off” flash up over footage of fighters, bombers, soldiers and animated mock missile attacks on Taiwan.

China has over the past four years regularly staged military activities around Taiwan, including large-scale war games in 2022 and in 2023.

However, senior Taiwan lawmaker Wang Ting-yu from Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party said the latest drills appeared to be more about China making a noise than upping the ante, given it had to respond to Lai’s speech.

“They were comparatively more restrained than previous ones,” Wang, who chairs parliament’s defence and foreign affairs committee, said on social media.

Still, China has kept up a barrage of invective against Lai.

The People’s Liberation Army Daily commentary, published as “the voice of the military”, said Lai was determined to act as a “pawn” for external forces to curb China’s development.

“If Taiwan independence separatist forces insist on going their own way or even take risks, the PLA will obey orders and take decisive action to resolutely smash all separatist plots,” it said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beijing:

China on Thursday morning began two days of military drills around Taiwan, surrounding the island with navy vessels and aircraft as “strong punishment” for “separatist acts”, state media reported.

The military exercise comes three days after Lai Ching-te was sworn in as the self-ruled island’s new president.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has branded Lai a “dangerous separatist” who will bring “war and decline” to the island.

China, which split with Taiwan at the end of a civil war in 1949, regards the island as a renegade province with which it must eventually be reunified, and has refused to rule out using military force to do so.

Relations have plunged in recent years as China has stepped up pressure on the democratic island, periodically stoking worries about a potential invasion.

Thursday and Friday’s drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, will “focus on joint sea-air combat-readiness patrol, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes on key targets”, Xinhua reported.

“The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) started joint military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan from 7:45 a.m. Thursday (2345 GMT),” the news agency said, adding the drills were being conducted in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of the island.

The drills will also take place around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, Xinhua said.

The news agency reported military spokesman Li Xi as saying the exercises “involve the patrol of vessels and planes closing in on areas around the island of Taiwan and integrated operations inside and outside the island chain to test the joint real combat capabilities of the forces of the command”.

The spokesperson said the drills would also serve as a “strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces”, Xinhua said.

– ‘Real combat conditions’ –

The last time China announced similar military exercises around Taiwan was in August last year after Lai, then vice president, stopped over in the United States on a visit to Paraguay.

Those drills also tested the PLA’s ability “to seize control of air and sea spaces” and fight “in real combat conditions”, according to state media.

Beijing at the time described them as a “stern warning”.

They followed on the heels of April drills that simulated the encirclement of the island, triggered after Lai’s predecessor Tsai Ing-wen met then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

China also launched major military exercises in 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan.

The country also held drills when then-president Tsai later transited through the United States.

World powers are keen to see as much stability as possible between China and Taiwan, not least because of the vital role the island plays in the global economy.

The Taiwan Strait is one of the world’s most important maritime trade arteries, and the island itself is a major tech manufacturer, particularly of vital semiconductors — the tiny chips used in everything from smartphones to missile systems.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Beijing:

China said on Wednesday its recent series of drills near Taiwan aimed at combating the “arrogance” of separatist forces, while the frontrunner to be Taiwan’s next president said China was trying to “annex” the island.

Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has said this month that it had observed dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, operating nearby.

The increased frequency of China’s military activities has raised the risk of events “getting out of hand” and sparking an accidental clash, the island’s defence minister has warned.

Asked about the spurt in drills, and Taiwan’s concerns about increased risk, Zhu Fenglian, the spokeswoman of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, acknowledged the drills by the People’s Liberation Army.

“The purpose is to resolutely combat the arrogance of Taiwan’s independent separatist forces and their actions to seek independence,” Zhu told a regular news briefing in Beijing.

“The provocation of Taiwan independence continues all day long, and the actions of the People’s Liberation Army to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity are always ongoing,” she added.

She urged people in Taiwan to distinguish between “right and wrong”, resolutely oppose independence for the island, and work with China to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

China has a particularly strong dislike of William Lai, the frontrunner to be elected president at the island’s January elections for previous comments in support of independence.

However, he says he does not seek to change the status quo and has offered talks with Beijing.

The situation across the Taiwan Strait had “not improved due to the passage of time”, said Lai, now the island’s vice president.

“China’s attempts to annex Taiwan have not changed,” he said at an event in Taipei on Wednesday for the 37th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP.

China on missing defence minister

China’s armed forces have not explicitly mentioned or commented on the drills at a time when Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu has gone missing from public view. Sources have told Reuters he is being investigated for corruption.

Taiwan’s democratically elected government says only the island’s people can decide their future, and has repeatedly offered talks with China, which Beijing has rejected.

On Wednesday, Taiwan’s defence ministry reported further Chinese military movements, saying it had detected and responded to 16 Chinese aircraft entering the island’s air defence identification zone over the prior 24 hours.

Of those, 12 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which had served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides until China began regularly crossing it in August last year.

On Thursday, Taiwan is set to launch the first of eight domestically made submarines as it bolsters its defences against China.

In Beijing, when asked about the submarines, Zhu said efforts by Taiwan’s DPP to “seek independence with force” would only exacerbate tensions and “push the Taiwanese people into a dangerous situation”.

In an unusual revelation last week, Taiwan’s defence ministry said it was monitoring China’s drills in the southern province of Fujian, opposite Taiwan. Normally Taiwan provides details only of drills in the skies and waters around it.

A senior Taiwan official familiar with security planning in the region told Reuters the information was released to show Taiwan’s surveillance and intelligence capacity.

“We can see the details and we are prepared,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

China’s military has also not commented on the Fujian exercises.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)