Kaohsiung, Taiwan, May 16 (Reuters) – Taiwan president, Lai Ching -Te, offered his support and encouragement to the armed forces on Friday before what the government warned could be a new series of Chinese military exercises near the island next week.
Taiwan cannot exclude that China will hold more military exercises to “arouse trouble” around a year anniversary of Lai on Tuesday, a government spokesman in Taipei said on Thursday.
China calls for a “separatist” and has rejected its multiple offers from talks. Lai rejects the affirmations of China’s sovereignty on the democratic island and entirely governed separately, affirming that only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.
LAI visited army engineers and anti-sous-marine helicopters in bases in the southern city of Kaohsiung to thank them for their efforts before the traditional Dragon Boat Festival at the end of the month.
Army engineers and the Navy anti-submarine aviation command are the “cornerstone of the military force of the country’s armed forces, and also essential to the global national defense strategy”, he told a group of the helicopter team during a lunch at the base of the Zuoying Navy in Kaohsiung.
“It is only because of your hard work and your dedication that soldiers continue to prosper and that the people of the country can live and work in peace and happiness,” he added. “Let’s work together to protect national security.”
Lai, who has made no direct mention of China or the potential of more exercises, was accompanied by the Minister of Defense Wellington Koo and the Secretary General of the National Security Council Joseph Wu, two of his senior defense officials.
The Chinese Ministry of Defense and Taiwan Bureau said this week that Lai was a “Taiwan Strait crisis manufacturer” who had increased antagonism and confrontation and undermined peace and stability.
Last month, China held the Code of War Games “Strait Thunder-2025a” around Taiwan, the “A” in its end suggesting that there could be more to come.
China called its May 2024 exercises “Joint Sword – 2024a”, held shortly after Lai took office and, in October of the same year, “Sword spouse – 2024b”.
(Report by Ben Blanchard; edition by Christian Schmollinger)
