Washington, March 18 (CNA) A United States State Department spokesperson has termed China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Tuesday “brazen and irresponsible threats” while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei.
“China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” a unnamed State Department spokesperson told CNA in an email on Tuesday U.S. time.
The spokesperson said Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years, and that the U.S. “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational, and diplomatic pressure campaign.”
“Alongside our international partners, we firmly support cross-Strait peace and stability and oppose any attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion,” the spokesperson said.
A U.S. Department of Defense spokesperson told CNA, meanwhile, that the American military was monitoring People’s Liberation Army (PLA) activity around Taiwan, but did not elaborate.
The two U.S. government spokespersons made the remarks when asked to comment on the U.S.’ stance on the PLA’s military activity around Taiwan on Monday.
The PLA sent more than two dozen Chinese military aircraft across the median line of the Taiwan Strait and dozens more into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in collaboration with Chinese naval vessels on Monday from 6 a.m. to about 9 p.m., according to data issued by Taiwan’s military.
PLA activity in the previous week leading into Monday and the day after on Tuesday (when there were 10 jet fighter sorties and one that crossed the median line) was relatively calm.
Chen Binhua, spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of China’s State Council said the drills Monday were a “just and necessary” move to safeguard national sovereignty and peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The drills are also a countermeasure to moves by “Taiwan’s leader” to “propagate separatist fallacies aimed at ‘Taiwan independence’ and his act to escalate tensions and confrontation across the Strait,” Chen said, referring to Taiwan President Lai Ching-te (賴清德).
Asked to comment on the relatively stern wording used by the U.S. State Department on the PLA drills, Robert Wang, a former State Department official, told CNA that it “sounds like relatively strong language to me.”
Julian Ku, a Hofstra University law professor, also said the word “brazen” is “a little unusual from the State Department as applied to these kinds of exercises.”
He said he agreed “this is a slight change in tone.”
“Overall, the State Department has not shown any signs of softer language on China or on Taiwan as compared with the Biden administration, and probably a little more Taiwan supportive, as in this case,” he told CNA.
During last year’s “Joint Sword 2024B” military exercises around Taiwan in October 2024, the State Department said it was “seriously concerned” by PLA’s military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan and described them “unwarranted” and risking escalation.
