US President Joe Biden voiced his concern Monday over China’s extension of military drills around Taiwan, but added that he did not expect the tense situation to escalate further.
Biden spoke to reporters after Beijing said it carried out fresh military drills around the self-ruled island on Monday, defying calls to end days of exercises in the wake of a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The military exercises, China’s largest-ever, had been expected to draw to a close on Sunday.
“I’m not worried, but I’m concerned they’re moving as much as they are. But I don’t think they’re going to do anything more than they are,” Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base.
Taiwan held an artillery drill Tuesday simulating defense against an attack as its top diplomat accused Beijing of preparing to invade the island after days of massive Chinese war games.
China launched its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan last week in a furious response to a tour by Pelosi, the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island in decades.
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views its neighbor as part of Chinese territory to be seized one day—by force if necessary.
“China has used the drills in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” foreign minister Joseph Wu told a press conference in Taipei on Tuesday, accusing Beijing of using Pelosi’s visit as a pretext for military action.
“China’s real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and entire region.”
The Chinese military said its Taiwan drills continued Tuesday and involved air and sea units.
The Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement that it was conducting training exercises around the island, “focusing on joint blockade and joint support operations”.
Taiwan’s military said it detected 45 Chinese planes and 10 ships operating in the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, with 16 planes crossing the median line—an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that Beijing does not recognize.
Lasting just under an hour, Taiwan’s drill in the southern county of Pingtung included the firing of target flares and artillery, lasting just under an hour, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps.
Soldiers fired from howitzers tucked into the coast, hidden from view of the road that leads to popular beach destination Kenting.
The drills, which will also take place Thursday, included the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzers, the army said.
Tuesday’s exercise attracted a crowd of onlookers.
“We need to have some countermeasures against mainland China’s blockade,” said one of the spectators, who only gave his surname Chen.
“Conducting military drills will also let them know Taiwan is prepared. I hope both sides can have some restraint.”
On Monday, spokesman Lou told AFP the drills were previously scheduled and were not in response to China’s exercises.
The island routinely stages military drills simulating defense against a Chinese invasion.
But the latest drill prompted an ominous warning from Beijing, which regularly unleashes fiery rhetoric against Taiwan’s independence hopes.
“Any conspiracy to go against the trend of history and resist reunification through arms… will end in failure like a mantis trying to stop a chariot,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing Tuesday.