TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan's foreign minister said on Tuesday that China was using military exercises it launched in protest of the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as a game plan to prepare for the invasion of the self-ruled island.
Joseph Wu, speaking at a press conference in Taipei, did not offer a timeline for a possible invasion of Taiwan, of which China claims it belongs.
He said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the exercises continued, with China often breaching the unofficial mid-line down the Taiwan Strait.
"China used the exercises in the military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan," Wu said.
“It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber attacks, disinformation, and economic coercion, in an effort to demoralize Taiwan's public.
"After the exercises are over, China may try to do its work routinely in an attempt to destroy the long-standing status quo across the Taiwan Strait," Wu said.
Such moves threaten regional security and provide a "clear picture of China's geostrategic ambitions outside Taiwan," Wu said, urging greater international support to prevent China from effectively controlling the strait.
A Pentagon official said Monday that Washington is committed to its assessment that China will not attempt to invade Taiwan over the next two years.
Wu spoke as military tensions escalated after the scheduled completion on Sunday of four days of China's largest-ever maneuvers surrounding the island -- exercises that included ballistic missile launches and simulated naval and air attacks in the sky and seas surrounding Taiwan.
China's Eastern Theater Command announced Monday that it will conduct new joint exercises focused on anti-submarine operations and naval attack — confirming concerns of some security analysts and diplomats that Beijing will continue to pressure Taiwan's defenses.
On Tuesday, the command said it continued to conduct military exercises and exercises in the seas and airspace around Taiwan, with a focus on blockades and logistical resupply.
"turning off"
A person familiar with security planning in areas around Taiwan described to Reuters on Tuesday an ongoing "confrontation" around the center line involving about 10 warships from both China and Taiwan.
"China kept trying to put pressure on the midfield," the person said. Taiwan's forces there have tried to keep international waterways open."
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said on Tuesday that the continuation of China's military exercises "shows that its threat to use force has not diminished."
With Pelosi leaving the region last Friday, China also abandoned some lines of communication with the United States, including theater-level military talks and discussions on climate change.
Taiwan began its long-scheduled special exercises on Tuesday, firing howitzers into the sea in southern Pingtung county, drawing a small crowd of curious onlookers to a nearby beach.
US President Joe Biden, in his first public comment on the issue since Pelosi's visit, on Monday, said he is concerned about China's actions in the region, but not about Taiwan.
"I'm concerned that they are moving as much as they are moving," Biden told reporters in Delaware, referring to China. "But I don't think they would do anything more than they do."
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said the US military will continue to conduct flights across the Taiwan Strait in the coming weeks.
China has never ruled out the seizure of Taiwan by force, and Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Monday that China is conducting regular military exercises "in our waters" in an open, transparent and professional manner, adding that Taiwan is part of China.
Taiwan rejects China's claims to sovereignty, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide the island's future.