Taipei condemns Chinese military drills around Taiwan

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) Taiwan's Presidential Office on Tuesday denounced China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) for launching joint military drills around Taiwan earlier the same day while calling Beijing a "troublemaker."

In a statement, the Presidential Office said it "strongly condemns" the PLA's military exercises, which Beijing said were incorporating multiple forces to simulate an assault on Taiwanese maritime and ground targets as well as a blockade of critical areas.

China has continued to "engage in military provocations and gray-zone tactics" in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region, the office said, adding that those activities had "undermined regional security and stability."

The office said China was "a troublemaker" for unilaterally escalating the regional situation and blatantly challenging the international order.

Speaking at the Legislature on Tuesday morning, Defense Minister Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said the Ministry of National Defense (MND) established a "response center" earlier the same day to monitor the PLA exercises.

Koo said the MND had been monitoring related PLA activities since March 29.

In a statement issued Tuesday, the MND said it detected a Chinese naval fleet led by the Shandong aircraft carrier operating in Taiwan's vicinity on March 29.

The fleet entered the country's reaction zone on Monday, it said.

According to the MND, the reaction zone comprises the area within the country's air defense identification zone between the Taiwan Strait median line and the easternmost boundary of Taiwan's "contiguous zone," which extends 24 nautical miles from the country's shores.

The MND said it deployed military aircraft, vessels and coastal missile systems in response to the threats.

Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration said, meanwhile, that around the same time the PLA Eastern Theater Command issued a statement about the drills on Tuesday, it detected China Coast Guard vessels 14607 and 14517 approaching Dongyin Island, one of the Taiwan-controlled Matsu Islands.

The CGA dispatched vessels in response to the ships, which the China Coast Guard claimed were "conducting law enforcement patrols."

In responding to the exercises, the MND said China's military is plagued by corruption despite government efforts to eliminate graft, and its "false claims of its combat capabilities" "expose how pompous it is."

The MND is confident in its ability to protect the country and the people against China's "gray zone activities" without escalating tensions or sparking conflicts, it said.

Update: No live-fire detected in latest PLA drills around Taiwan: MND

According to Beijing, the exercises served as "a stern warning" against "Taiwan independence" separatist forces.

In a statement on Tuesday, China's Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) slammed President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) for labeling Beijing as "foreign hostile force" and announcing "17 strategies" targeting China in mid-March.

TAO claimed the exercises were "a firm punishment" for such provocations, without saying how long the exercises will last.

Lai introduced the "17 major strategies" for what he called growing national security threats posed by China, including infiltration and espionage activities targeting the Taiwanese military and society.

In response to media requests for a comment on the Chinese military drills, the Kuomintang (KMT), Taiwan's main opposition party, appeared to have taken a softer stance on Beijing.

In a separate statement on Tuesday, the KMT called on "the other side [of the Taiwan Strait] to lay down its arms" amid what it called "spiraling hostility across the two sides" of the Taiwan Strait brought about by the Lai administration's national security measures.

The American Institute in Taiwan also condemned China's actions.

"China's escalating military intimidation tactics only serve to exacerbate tensions and undermine cross-Strait peace and stability," it said in a statement to CNA.

"China has shown that it is not a responsible actor and has no problem putting the region's security and prosperity at risk."