In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, a projectile is launched at an unspecified location in China during long-range live-fire drills by the rocket force of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army targeting maritime areas east of Taiwan, August 4, 2022. (AP)China Taiwan Tensions Live Updates: Amidst China’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken Saturday said that though US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taipei visit was peaceful, Beijing launched 11 ballistic missiles. Blinken’s comment follows reports that Chinese aircraft and warships Saturday practised for an attack on Taiwan. Earlier in the day, the deputy head of Taiwan defence ministry’s research and development unit was found dead in a hotel room, said a Reuters report quoting local media.
Meanwhile, an angry Beijing announced Friday it was halting dialogue with the US in a number of areas, including between top military commanders, on climate change, and exchanges on countering cross-border crime and drug trafficking, all moves Washington called “irresponsible.”
As far as India is concerned, the impact is likely to be minimal, according to Reserve Bank Governor Shaktikanta Das. The Governor said Taiwan accounts for only 0.7 per cent of India’s overall trade and the capital flows from the island are also not very high. “…so far as India is concerned, you know, our trade with Taiwan is minuscule. It’s about 0.7 per cent of our total trade. So therefore the impact on India is expected to be very, very, very negligible,” said the governor.
US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen wave during a meeting in Taipei. (AP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday that China's latest actions on Taiwan were moving away from a practice of resolving issues peacefully, to coercion and towards the use of force.
At a news conference in Manila with his Philippines counterpart, Blinken also chided China for retaliatory actions that went beyond firing missiles to walking away from climate change talks. He said the United States would work to ensure communication channels remain open to prevent miscommunication. (Reuters)
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will replace Defence Minister Nobuo Kishi on consideration of his health conditions in the upcoming Cabinet and party leadership reshuffle on Wednesday, the Yomiuri daily reported on Saturday.
Kishida moved the reshuffle, originally slated for early September, after a key memorial service for former premier Shinzo Abe who was fatally shot last month, earlier to solidify the leadership in the wake of a domestic Covid-19 resurgence and the intensifying Taiwan situation, the newspaper said.
The reshuffle would come after Kishida's conservative coalition government increased its majority in the upper house of parliament in a July election held two days after Abe's death. (Reuters)
The deputy head of Taiwan defence ministry's research and development unit was found dead on Saturday morning in a hotel room, according to the official Central News Agency.
Ou Yang Li-hsing, deputy head of the military-owned National Chung-Shan Institute of Science and Technology, was found dead in a hotel room in southern Taiwan on Saturday morning, CNA reported. It said authorities were looking into the cause of death.
Ou Yang was on a business trip to the southern county of Pingtung, CNA said, adding that he had assumed the post early this year to supervise various missile production projects. (Reuters)
The Philippines foreign minister on Saturday told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken that the region can ill afford an escalation of regional tensions over the Taiwan Strait.
Blinken, in a virtual meeting with Philippines Foreign Secretary Enrique Manalo, said Washington was determined to avoid a crisis. He also stressed that relations between the two defence treaty allies have never been more important. (Reuters)
Chinese aircraft and ships carried out attack simulation exercises towards Taiwan's main island on Saturday morning, Taiwan's defence ministry said in a statement.
The ministry said several batches of Chinese aircraft were detected in the Taiwan Strait and some crossed the median line. Taiwan's army broadcast a warning and used air reconnaissance patrol forces, naval ships and shore-based missiles to deal with the situation, it added.' (Reuters)
North Korea Saturday called Nancy Pelosi “the worst destroyer of international peace and stability,” accusing her of inciting anti-North Korea sentiment and enraging China during her Asian tour earlier this week.
While in South Korea, Pelosi visited a border area with North Korea and discussed the North’s nuclear program with South Korean National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin Pyo. On Saturday, Jo Yong Sam, director general at the North Korean Foreign Ministry's press and information affairs department, slammed Pelosi over her visit to the border and discussion of anti-North Korean deterrence.
“Pelosi who had come under a volley of due criticism from China for destroying regional peace and stability by visiting Taiwan, stirred up the atmosphere of confrontation” with North Korea during her stay in South Korea, Jo said in a statement carried by state media.
Calling Pelosi “the worst destroyer of international peace and stability,” Jo argued Pelosi’s behaviour in South Korea clearly showed the Biden administration’s hostile policy toward North Korea. “It would be a fatal mistake for her to think that she can go scot-free in the Korean Peninsula,” Jo warned. “The US will have to pay dearly for all the sources of trouble spawned by her wherever she went.” (AP)
The chair of this week's meetings of the regional bloc ASEAN said on Saturday that discussions among foreign ministers over Taiwan tensions were lively and included some strong arguments, but it was better disputes were handled with words.
Prak Sokhonn, Cambodia's foreign minister, said he told a meeting of foreign ministers they must have calm, dignified, polite, and civilised discussions.
"The most important thing is that we continue to talk to each other," he told a news conference. (Reuters)
Taiwan's defence ministry said on Saturday that it had fired flares late on Friday to warn away seven drones flying over its outlying Kinmen Islands and to warn unidentified aircraft flying over its outlying Matsu Islands.
The ministry said troops were on high alert in both areas, which lie just off the coast of mainland China, after Beijing launched large-scale military drills this week in response to a visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi. (Reuters)
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China on Thursday (August 4) launched aggressive and unprecedented military exercises near Taiwan in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.
As the long-range, live-fire drills began with China’s Eastern Theatre Command firing several ballistic missiles, Taiwan said that it was “preparing for war without seeking war”. What is Taiwan’s strategy to fight back in case China attempts to occupy it by force?
The “porcupine doctrine”, which was proposed in 2008 by US Naval War College research professor William S Murray, is a strategy of asymmetric warfare focused on fortifying a weak state’s defences to exploit the enemy’s weaknesses rather than taking on its strengths.