Taiwan Accuses China of Preparing Invasion, Holds Defense Drill

Taiwanese soldiers take part in a military drill in Taoyuan city, Nothern Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018.(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Taiwanese soldiers take part in a military drill in Taoyuan city, Nothern Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018.(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
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Taiwan Accuses China of Preparing Invasion, Holds Defense Drill

Taiwanese soldiers take part in a military drill in Taoyuan city, Nothern Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018.(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
Taiwanese soldiers take part in a military drill in Taoyuan city, Nothern Taiwan, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018.(AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Taiwan held an artillery drill Tuesday simulating defense against an attack as its top diplomat accused Beijing of preparing to invade the island after days of massive Chinese war games.

China launched its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan last week in a furious response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island in decades, AFP said.

Taiwan lives under the constant threat of invasion by China, which views its neighbor as part of Chinese territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary.

"China has used the drills in its military playbook to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan," foreign minister Joseph Wu told a press conference in Taipei on Tuesday, accusing Beijing of using Pelosi's visit as a pretext for military action.

"China's real intention is to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and entire region," he said.

The Chinese military said its Taiwan drills continued Tuesday and involved air and sea units.

The Eastern Theater command of the People's Liberation Army said in a statement that it was conducting training exercises around the island, "focusing on joint blockade and joint support operations".

Taipei's drill started in the southern county of Pingtung shortly after 0040 GMT with the firing of target flares and artillery, ending just under an hour later at 0130 GMT, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan's Eighth Army Corps.

Soldiers fired from howitzers tucked into the coast, hidden from view of the road that leads to popular beach destination Kenting.

The drills, which will also take place Thursday, included the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzers, the army said.

On Monday, Lou told AFP the drills had been scheduled previously and were not in response to China's exercises.

The island routinely stages military drills simulating defense against a Chinese invasion, and last month practiced repelling attacks from the sea in a "joint interception operation" as part of its largest annual exercises.

-'Not worried'-
The anti-landing exercise took place after China extended its own joint sea and air drills around Taiwan on Monday, but Washington said it did not expect an escalation from Beijing.

"I'm not worried, but I'm concerned they're moving as much as they are. But I don't think they're going to do anything more than they are," Biden told reporters at Dover Air Force Base.

Taiwan's Wu on Tuesday condemned Beijing for pressing on with military exercises around the island, accusing them of trying to control the Taiwan Strait and waters in the wider Asia-Pacific region.

"It is conducting large-scale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyber-attacks, a disinformation campaign and economic coercion in order to weaken public morale in Taiwan," he said.

Wu went on to thank Western allies, including the US after Pelosi's visit, for standing up to China.

"It also sends a clear message to the world that democracy will not bow to the intimidation of authoritarianism," he said.

Taiwan has insisted that no Chinese warplanes or ships entered its territorial waters -- within 12 nautical miles of land -- during Beijing's drills.

The Chinese military, however, released a video last week of an air force pilot filming the island's coastline and mountains from his cockpit, showing how close it had come to Taiwan's shores.

Its ships and planes have also regularly crossed the median line -- an unofficial demarcation between China and Taiwan that the former does not recognize -- since drills began last week.

Ballistic missiles were fired over Taiwan's capital, Taipei, during the exercises last week, according to Chinese state media.

-'Issuing a warning'-
On Tuesday, the Chinese military released more details about the anti-submarine drills it had conducted a day earlier around the island.

The People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theater command said the exercises were aimed at enhancing the ability of air and sea units to work together while hunting submarines.

It said maritime patrol aircraft, fighter jets, helicopters and a destroyer practiced locating and attacking targets in the waters off Taiwan.

The scale and intensity of China's drills -- as well as its withdrawal from key talks on climate and defense -- have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies.

But Beijing on Monday defended its behavior as "firm, forceful and appropriate" to American provocation.

"(We) are only issuing a warning to the perpetrators," foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing, promising China would "firmly smash the Taiwan authorities' illusion of gaining independence through the US".

"We urge the US to do some earnest reflection, and immediately correct its mistakes."



32 Killed in New Sectarian Violence in Pakistan

Police officers stand guard near their vehicles during a protest by Pakistani Shiite Muslims against an attack on passenger vehicles in Kurram, in Dera Ismail Khan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, 22 November 2024. EPA/SAOOD REHMAN
Police officers stand guard near their vehicles during a protest by Pakistani Shiite Muslims against an attack on passenger vehicles in Kurram, in Dera Ismail Khan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, 22 November 2024. EPA/SAOOD REHMAN
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32 Killed in New Sectarian Violence in Pakistan

Police officers stand guard near their vehicles during a protest by Pakistani Shiite Muslims against an attack on passenger vehicles in Kurram, in Dera Ismail Khan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, 22 November 2024. EPA/SAOOD REHMAN
Police officers stand guard near their vehicles during a protest by Pakistani Shiite Muslims against an attack on passenger vehicles in Kurram, in Dera Ismail Khan District, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, 22 November 2024. EPA/SAOOD REHMAN

At least 32 people were killed and 47 wounded in sectarian clashes in northwest Pakistan, an official told AFP on Saturday, two days after attacks on Shiite passenger convoys killed 43.

Sporadic fighting between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province bordering Afghanistan has killed around 150 over the past months.

"Fighting between Shiite and Sunni communities continues at multiple locations. According to the latest reports, 32 people have been killed which include 14 Sunnis and 18 Shiites," a senior administrative official told AFP on condition of anonymity on Saturday.

On Thursday, gunmen opened fire on two separate convoys of Shiite Muslims travelling with police escort in Kurram, killing 43 while 11 wounded are still in "critical condition", officials told AFP.

In retaliation Shiite Muslims on Friday evening attacked several Sunni locations in the Kurram district, once a semi-autonomous region, where sectarian violence has resulted in the deaths of hundreds over the years.

"Around 7 pm (1400 GMT), a group of enraged Shiite individuals attacked the Sunni-dominated Bagan Bazaar," a senior police officer stationed in Kurram told AFP.

"After firing, they set the entire market ablaze and entered nearby homes, pouring petrol and setting them on fire. Initial reports suggest over 300 shops and more than 100 houses have been burned," he said.

Local Sunnis "also fired back at the attackers", he added.

Javedullah Mehsud, a senior official in Kurram said there were "efforts to restore peace ... (through) the deployment of security forces" and with the help of "local elders".

After Thursday's attacks that killed 43, including seven women and three children, thousands of Shiite Muslims took to the streets in various cities of Pakistan on Friday.

Several hundred people demonstrated in Lahore, Pakistan's second city and Karachi, the country's commercial hub.

In Parachinar, the main town of Kurram district, thousands participated in a sit-in, while hundreds attended the funerals of the victims, mainly Shiite civilians.