China is likely to launch military drills next week near Taiwan, using Vice President William Lai's stopovers in the United States as a pretext to intimidate voters ahead of an election next year and make them "fear war," Taiwanese officials said.
File photo of Taiwan's Vice President William Lai at the launching ceremony of an all-female presidential campaign volunteer group in Taipei, Taiwan July 9, 2023. REUTERS/ Ann Wang
The April exercises included practice for blockades in an angry response to a meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy during Tsai's stopover in Los Angeles. Neither China's defense ministry nor its Taiwan Affairs Office responded to a request for comment, though the government has repeatedly condemned the visit. China's ambassador to the U.S. said last month it was his country's "priority" to stop the visit.
The Taiwanese official said Beijing could "upgrade" the scale of its "combat readiness patrols" near Taiwan that the People's Liberation Army has staged frequently in recent months by sending warships and aircraft close to the island that China claims as its territory. The post is held by Laura Rosenberger, who until early 2023 was a senior official on Biden's National Security Council handling policy toward China.Taiwan believes the scale of the exercises could be smaller than those in April, the Taiwanese official said.
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