Taiwan president: restraint does not mean it will not ‘counter’ China

By Ben Blanchard

PENGHU, Taiwan (Reuters) -President Tsai Ing-wen mentioned on Tuesday that Taiwan would present restraint within the face of what she referred to as Chinese language provocations, however may take “robust countermeasures” if wanted.

Tsai, on a go to to an air and naval base on the Penghu islands within the Taiwan Strait, praised the armed forces for his or her efforts to guard Taiwan and condemned Beijing for its latest navy drills.

China, which claims Taiwan as its territory regardless of the objections of the federal government in Taipei, has carried out navy workout routines across the island this month after a go to by U.S. Home of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

“I wish to inform everybody that the extra the enemy provokes, the extra calm we should be,” Tsai instructed naval officers.

“We won’t provoke disputes, and we are going to train self-restraint, but it surely doesn’t imply that we are going to not counter.”

She mentioned she had ordered defence ministry to take “crucial and powerful countermeasures” to defend the nation’s airspace. She didn’t elaborate.

Taiwan’s authorities has repeatedly mentioned it has responded calmly to China’s actions, and no photographs have been fired between the 2 sides.

However Taiwan has been upset by Chinese language drones flying very near islands it controls subsequent to China’s coast, which Tsai mentioned was a part of Beijing’s “gray zone” warfare.

The warships and fighter jets based mostly at Penghu have been going out armed with dwell ammunition since China started its workout routines this month, officers instructed reporters on the journey.

Frigate captain Lee Kuang-ping mentioned they’d repeatedly traded radio warnings with Chinese language warships.

“Generally close to the drill zone communist Chinese language fishing boats seem, they usually provocatively say ‘hit them, hit them!'” Lee mentioned.

Chinese language and Taiwanese warships performed “cat and mouse” within the Taiwan Strait with some Chinese language vessels crossing an unofficial buffer separating the 2 sides, a supply instructed Reuters, in a part of the Chinese language drills carried out in response to Pelosi’s go to.

On a Fb publish in a while Tuesday citing a navy commander in Penghu, Tsai mentioned ships from either side got here as shut as 500-600 yards to one another and Taiwan ships “strictly monitored” their Chinese language counterparts for six days.

The Chinese language navy unit chargeable for the world adjoining to Taiwan, the Individuals’s Liberation Military’s Japanese Theatre Command, launched on Aug. 15 a video of the Penghu islands, apparently taken by China’s air drive.

Taiwan’s navy termed the video info warfare, accusing China of exaggeration and saying it was not true Chinese language forces had come close to the islands.

Penghu, a summer time vacationer vacation spot for its seashores, is near Taiwan’s southwestern coast, not like the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen and Matsu islands, that are proper subsequent to China’s shores.

Taiwan’s armed forces are well-equipped however dwarfed by China’s. Tsai has been overseeing a modernisation programme and has made growing defence spending a precedence.

Requested in regards to the Chinese language drone actions, Taiwan defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng mentioned he couldn’t give particulars on what Taiwan would do to counter the incursions however he mentioned the navy would react based mostly on the precept of “self defence”.

“Do not make a fuss then once I set off some firecrackers to scare away some sparrows,” he instructed reporters in Taipei in a veiled warning to China.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; further reporting by Yimou Lee; Modifying by Tomasz Janowski and Angus MacSwan)