China conducts combat readiness patrol after US delegation visit to Taiwan

Posted: Nov 9, 2021 23:24 GMT

From Beijing it was reported that the goal is to counter “seriously wrong” steps by the US.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) carried out a combat readiness patrol in the vicinity of the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday in response to a visit by US congressmen to Taipei, Global Times reports.

According to the spokesman for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, Colonel Shi Yi, the exercises were aimed at countering the steps “seriously wrong” of the United States and constitute a necessary measure to guarantee the sovereignty of the country.

Hours earlier, it was announced that a US military plane, carrying members of Congress from that country, landed in Taiwan, a fact that Beijing described as an act of provocation and strongly criticized.

Threat to “peace and stability”

“The US action seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs and seriously undermined our territorial sovereignty, threatened peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” reads a statement released by the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Defense. So Kefei.

He also stressed that ministry that Taiwan forms “sacred and indivisible part of the territory of China” and that “no one should underestimate the determination and great capacity of the Chinese people” to defend their territorial integrity.

In this context, the Chinese spokesman said that the PLA will remain on high alert and will take the necessary measures. “We urge the US to immediately stop its provocative acts and all destructive actions that lead to the escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait, and refrain from sending wrong signals to Taiwan’s ‘independence’ forces, “said Tan Kefei.

For his part, the spokesman for the US Department of Defense, John Kirby, quoted by ., said that this is the second visit so far this year and that the practice itself It is not unusual”.

Increasing tensions

On November 8, it was reported that a Chinese military plane prevented what appeared to be an attempt to approach the airspace near Taiwan by a US military aircraft.

Tensions between Beijing and Washington escalated after the president of the North American country, Joe Biden, declared on October 21 that his nation will defend Taiwan in the event of an armed conflict with mainland China. Subsequently, from the White House they specified that such statements do not represent a change in the policy of “strategic ambiguity” adopted by the US in relation to that island.