Taiwan has vowed to launch a forceful “counterattack” and “destroy enemy forces” in the event of an incursion by Chinese forces, as tensions continue to soar between Beijing and Taipei following a high-level visit by US officials to the island.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Taiwanese military officials outlined alleged “threats from the People’s Republic of China” and discussed a series of “large-scale exercises” carried out by the Chinese military earlier in August following a visit by US House speaker Nancy Pelosi and other officials.
“Some of the live-fire drills overlapped our country’s territorial seas… and endangered international waterways,” defense spokesman Major General Sun Li-fang said, claiming that the exercises threatened “international order.”
Taiwanese military operations and planning chief, Major General Lin Wen-huang, went on to say that the island reserves the right to respond in force if the People’s Liberation Army breaches its airspace or waters.