After almost a week of silence in the face of renewed tensions between China and the United States, US President Joe Biden commented on the crisis on Monday (8).
Biden said he was “concerned” about Chinese military exercises in Taiwan since Thursday, in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosis’ visit to the island last week.
China claims Taiwan as part of its national territory and therefore viewed Pelosi’s visit to the capital Taipei as a US provocation.
“I worry that they (China) are moving so much,” the US leader said during a trip to the state of Delaware. “But I don’t think they’re going to do any more than they’re already doing.”
Understand the importance of Taiwan
During the military drills, the largest China has ever conducted on the outskirts of Taiwan, Beijing used live ammunition something atypical and fired 11 missiles into the island’s sea, in addition to penetrating the island’s airspace dozens of times.
The tests were supposed to take place until Sunday (7th), but this Monday (8th), Beijing announced that the exercises would continue with no planned end date. The extension ignores calls from western and neighboring countries to halt exercises and prolongs an unprecedented crisis between Beijing and Washington.
- Finally, what is Taiwan and why is the island of strategic importance to world powers?
The dispute between China and the Taiwanese government over the island has been going on for decades, since the anticommunist opposition took refuge there.
The island of Taiwan was taken over by China from Japan in 1945 after World War II. But soon after, China entered the civil war, in which communist and nationalist forces clashed. The communists, led by Mao Tsetung, won the conflict and with it the nationalists fled to Taiwan, took the island and proclaimed the Nationalist Republic of China there. They claimed to be China’s legitimate governmentinexile.
Beijing, which has since been run by the Communist Party, claims Taiwan remains part of its territory and will retake it by force if necessary.
In recent decades, however, both sides have “parked” their concerns: neither Beijing has attempted to invade the island, nor has Taipei pushed ahead with its plans for independence.
But that strategy has changed in recent years. Current Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is seeking reelection, has again hardened his antiTaiwan speech and last year resumed military exercises across the island. The stance coincided with the rise to power of Democrat Joe Biden in the United States, who has consistently advocated Taiwan independence, an issue his predecessor Donald Trump barely touched on.
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