China launches largest war games around Taiwan after US' $11.1 billion arms sales, but Trump is not ‘worried’ | Today News

China launched its "biggest war games" around the island nation of Taiwan this week. On Tuesday, the second day of China's largest military drills, Beijing launched 10 hours of live-firing exercises around the islet, according to Reuters. The military drills were code-named “Justice Mission 2025.”

1. China accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Taiwan of advancing its separatist agenda.

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said the People's Liberation Army's 'Justice Mission 2025' drills near the Taiwan Island "are a punitive and deterrent action against separatist forces who seek “Taiwan independence” through military buildup."

Meanwhile, Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said Taiwan independence "is incompatible with peace across the Strait."

The Chinese spokespersons called these drills "a necessary move to safeguard China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

2. Notably, the drills began 11 days after the US announced a record $11.1 billion arms package to Taiwan.

In a statement on Monday, the foreign affairs ministry pointed to this, saying that Taiwan's "massive and desperate arms purchase further reveals their true nature as provocateurs, saboteurs of peace and war-mongers."

Without naming the US, China's ministry said, "Anyone who tries to arm Taiwan to contain China will only embolden the separatists and push the Taiwan Strait closer to the peril of armed conflict."

At the same time, Zhang Xiaogang, spokesman for the Ministry of National Defense, said that Taiwan's Democratic Progressive Party authorities, that is seeking "independence" by relying on external forces, "is doomed to fail and that resisting reunification through military means is a dead end."

China emphasised that the "Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests." It warned that anyone who crosses the line or makes provocations on the question will be met with China’s firm response.

"All attempts to hold back China’s reunification will invariably fail," the ministry said.

“I have a great relationship with President Xi and he hasn’t told me anything about it,” Trump told reporters in a press conference alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But “I certainly have seen it, but he hasn’t told me anything about it. And I don’t believe he’s going to be doing it,” Trump said.

Nothing worries me, he said. "They’ve [China] been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area – now people take it a little bit differently," Trump said.

China claims that Taiwan, a democratically governed island nation, it parts if its own and therefore, has intensified military pressure around the island over the last five years.

Taiwan rejected China's claimed sovereignty, maintaining that only its people can decide the island's future. Taiwan's people elect their own leaders.

Taiwan enjoys de facto independence even if that is not formally recognised by most countries.

Taiwan maintains that the Republic of China is a sovereign state and that Beijing has no right to speak for or represent it, given that the People's Republic of China has no say in how it chooses its leaders and has never ruled Taiwan.

But, China says it will not renounce the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. Any attack on Taiwan could ignite a broader regional war.

Beijing has offered Taiwan a "one country, two systems" model similar to Hong Kong, which promised the city a high degree of autonomy, though no major political party in Taiwan supports that, Reuters reported.