New Delhi: Taiwan’s Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng on Tuesday warned China against “repeated provocations,” as China’s foreign minister said Taiwan was the “first red line” that must not be crossed in Sino-U.S. relations.
For the past three years, tensions over democratically governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, have increased as Beijing ramps up diplomatic and military pressure to get Taipei to accept Chinese sovereignty, Reuters reported.
Speaking to reporters at parliament, Taiwan’s defence minister said, “The Chinese communists use any reason to send troops. But we won’t just say ‘bring it on’. We will take a peaceful and rational approach.”
Although it hopes this does not happen, Taiwan’s military is prepared to fight, he added.
Chiu further stated, “If the Chinese communists move again, the armed forces’ job is to fight. We won’t allow repeated provocations against us. We can’t accept that.”
According to Reuters, China staged war games near Taiwan in August to protest the Taipei visit of then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen plans to meet current House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States in the coming weeks.
Taiwan’s government has not announced Tsai’s visit to the United States, which previously she has made as stop-overs on the way to countries that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taiwan in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Taiwan’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday it will make an announcement at an appropriate time about any foreign travel for the president but that it had nothing to announce for the time being. McCarthy has also not confirmed a meeting with Tsai.
