Foreign Minister Exposes Tally of Aircraft & Naval Vessels in PLA’s Earlier Drills near Taiwan
2019/04/18
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Foreign Minister Exposes Tally of Aircraft & Naval Vessels in PLA’s Earlier Drills near Taiwan
Source: UDN
April 18, 2019
On the Foreign Ministry’s Twitter account yesterday morning, Foreign Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) condemned the PLA for conducting military drills in the west Pacific off east Taiwan last Monday. Wu stated in his tweet that “Right when we’re commemorating the 40th anniversary of the Taiwan Relations Act with the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), the PLA sent 24 aircraft and 5 ships to conduct exercises near Taiwan. H-6 bombers also simulated attacks in airspace and waters off south and southeast Taiwan. Too bad, Beijing. We won’t bow to a bully!” However, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) and Japan’s Ministry of Defense had not made public such detailed information.
Wu’s exposure of such detailed information elicited public discussions. The Foreign Ministry stated that the tweet aimed to highlight China’s attempt at and intensity in intimidating Taiwan with military force as well as the security pressure China put on Taiwan in order to remind the international community to face squarely and attach importance to China’s repeated bullying and to seek understanding and support from the international community.
A National Defense Ministry official stated that 24 was the total number of PLA military aircraft that had participated in the drills on April 15, but not all of them had flown through the first island chain, adding that the scale of the PLA drills this time was nearly the same as those in the past. In addition, the MND had no prior knowledge of Wu’s decision to reveal the number of the PLA military aircraft and naval vessels in the drills, the same source concluded.
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