China announced the conclusion of its massive live-fire drills surrounding Taiwan.
The Chinese military began the drills last week in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan, which Beijing viewed as a violation of Chinese sovereignty. The weeklong drills saw the Chinese People’s Liberation Army conduct extensive simulations of air and sea attacks around the island, including firing ballistic missiles over the capital of Taipei, according to Reuters.
“[The PLA] successfully completed various tasks and effectively tested the integrated combat capabilities of the troops,” said a statement from the PLA’s Eastern Theater command. “Theater forces will keep an eye on the changes in the situation in the Taiwan Strait, continue to carry out training and preparation for combat, organize regular combat readiness patrols in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
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The concluding remarks of the statement signal that China intends to ramp up patrols in the South China Sea, patrols that frequently drift into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, just outside of Taiwan’s airspace. This year, China has sent squadrons of aircraft into the zone to test Taiwanese defenses, with the largest incursion consisting of 39 aircraft in January, according to Reuters.
On Wednesday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office published a new white paper, “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era,” its first policy paper in 22 years, according to the Wall Street Journal. The paper reiterates Beijing’s policy of seeing Taiwan as part of China, proposing once again the peaceful offer of a “one country, two systems” model that it currently uses with Hong Kong. The paper was notable for removing a previous clause that ruled out Chinese soldiers and administrators from being sent to Taiwan.
“We are one China, and Taiwan is part of China. This is an indisputable fact supported by history and the law. Taiwan has never been a state; its status as part of China is unalterable,” the paper says, according to state-run Xinhua. “The realization of complete national reunification is driven by the history and culture of the Chinese nation and determined by the momentum towards and circumstances surrounding our national rejuvenation. Never before have we been so close to, confident in, and capable of achieving the goal of national rejuvenation.”
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Support for reunification in Taiwan is almost nonexistent. A poll from Taiwan’s National Chengchi University found that just 1.3% of Taiwanese support unification as soon as possible, along with 5.2% that support moving toward unification while maintaining the status quo.
