US president says Chinese leader didn’t notify him of the large-scale military drills, which continued with live missile launches into the Taiwan Strait
US president says Chinese leader didn’t notify him of the large-scale military drills, which continued with live missile launches into the Taiwan Strait
Donald Trump has said he is not worried by China’s live-fire military drills surrounding Taiwan and that he has a great relationship with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who “hasn’t told me anything about it”.
The US president made the comments one day into the surprise attack simulation launched by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday, and which continued into Tuesday with live missile launches into the Taiwan Strait.
The PLA, which is the armed wing of China’s ruling Communist party, said it had deployed destroyers, frigates, fighters, bombers, drones and long-range missiles “in close proximity” to Taiwan on Monday to test “sea-air coordination and precise target hunting and neutralisation”, including attacks on submarines and other maritime targets.
Beijing claims Taiwan is a Chinese province and is preparing to militarily annex it, with the aim of being capable of invasion by 2027, according to US intelligence from several years ago. In the meantime it deploys an array of military and non-military forms of harassment and intimidation to convince or coerce Taiwan to accept “peaceful reunification”.
In the 24 hours to Tuesday morning Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected at least 14 navy vessels, 14 coast guard ships, one surveillance balloon, and 130 war planes and drones around Taiwan as part of the exercise China has dubbed “Justice Mission 2025”.
