China says military pressure on Taiwan to ‘continue’

Two people ride a motorcycle as a Taiwanese Air Force Mirage 2000 fighter jet approaches for landing at an air force base in Hsinchu in northern Taiwan on May 23, 2024. FILE PHOTO/Agence France Presse

BEIJING — China on Wednesday vowed military pressure on Taiwan would carry on as long as “independence” provocations continued on the self-ruled island.

Last week, China held two days of military drills around Taiwan that saw warships and jets loaded with live munitions practise seizing and isolating the self-ruled island.

The exercises were launched three days after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te took office and made an inauguration speech that China denounced as a “confession of independence”.

READ: China holds military drills around Taiwan as ‘punishment’

Beijing considers the democratic island part of its territory and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control.

On Wednesday, Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said more military exercises could follow last week’s “Joint Sword-2024A”.

“As long as ‘Taiwan independence’ provocations continue, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) actions to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity will continue,” TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian told a press conference.

READ: 21 Chinese planes detected by Taiwan days after drills

Zhu called President Lai’s rhetoric “extremely reckless”, adding it would “inevitably risk war on the Taiwan strait and bring severe harm to our Taiwan compatriots”.

“We will never tolerate, condone, or allow this, and we must counteract and punish this,” she said.

“The greater the provocation, the stronger the countermeasure.”