China accuses Taiwan’s president of “playing with fire” and “pushing the island into war”

Taipei denounces the lack of information about the latest maneuvers of the Chinese Army near its coasts

May 24. (EUROPA PRESS) –

The Chinese authorities have accused this Friday the Taiwanese president, Lai Ching Te, of “playing with fire” and “pushing the island into war” with his statements, which “question the ‘one China’ principle” for the that the country is governed, whose Government considers Taiwan another province under its sovereignty.

“This is called playing with fire, and those who play with fire end up getting burned,” said the spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, Wu Qian, within the framework of the second day of military maneuvers launched near the island. in response to pro-independence comments made by Lai after being sworn into office.

Wu noted that “since he was sworn in, the leader of the Taiwan region has been seriously questioning this principle, which pushes Taiwanese compatriots into a dangerous situation and exposes them to the danger of war,” he noted, according to a statement from the Ministry.

“Every time the movement supporting Taiwan independence provokes us, we have to go a little further with the measures we take in response. This will continue to happen until the complete reunification of the motherland,” he warned.

Likewise, he has defended that the actions launched by the Chinese Army, which continues this Friday carrying out maneuvers around Taiwan, serve to “test China’s combat capacity in the area.” “This measure aims to combat the arrogance of Taiwanese independence and confront foreign interference and intervention,” he stated before stating that these are “reasonable, necessary, legal and justified” measures.

“Taiwan is China’s Taiwan. How to resolve this issue depends on the 1.4 billion people who live in China and the Army defends national sovereignty and territorial integrity with practical actions,” he said.

TAIWAN DENOUNCES THE LACK OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE MANEUVERS

However, the Intelligence Deputy to the Chief of Staff of Taiwan, General Huang Wen Chi, has denounced the lack of information that China is providing about these latest exercises, such as the one carried out this Friday by Fleet 2304 of the Service. of the Coast Guard to the east of the island to “verify, identify” and, if possible, “expel hostile ships.”

“Unlike previous military exercises around Taiwan, this time they have neither provided us with the coordinates where they were going to take place nor have they informed us what airspace they were going to restrict,” he said in a statement reported by the ‘Taipei Times’.

Taiwan has described these maneuvers as similar to those that China carried out in 2022 in retaliation for the visit to Taiwan of the then speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in what China understood as one of the greatest diplomatic affronts of the last years.

Although there are similarities in the positioning of some of the ships, the Taiwanese Army has clarified that, so far, Chinese forces have not used live ammunition in their drills, as they did two years ago.