China is expected to show up with military drills next week near Taiwan, using Vice-President William Lai’s stopovers in the US as a pretext in order to terrify voters ahead of an election in 2024 and make them “fear war”, Taiwanese officials said. The US transits by Mr Lai, who is the front runner for Taiwan’s presidential vote in January, have already drawn Beijing’s ire.
The United States has expressed the stopovers as routine and no reason for China to take “provocative” action. Beijing could conduct manoeuvres close to the ones it held in April to “militarily intimidate” Taiwanese voters as well as nations in the place, revealed by officials who talked about the matter, who denied to be recognized because of the sensitivity of the situation.
The April projects involved practice for blockades in an aggressive reply to a meeting between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy during Ms Tsai’s stopover in Los Angeles. “It is fairly likely that they could utilize it as a pretext and declare ‘drills’ around the Taiwan Strait,” revealed one of the sources, a senior official known with Taiwan’s safety planning.
“They want to create the terror of war and make Taiwanese vote in favour of their choice.” The Taiwanese official said Beijing could polish the scale of its “combat readiness patrols” near Taiwan that the People’s Liberation Army has staged so many times in latest months by driving away warships and aircraft near to the island. China recognizes Taiwan as a rebel province to be reunified, by force if seemed important.