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Even as Taiwan works to strengthen its defenses in response to Beijing’s military pressure, the island has warned that any Chinese fighter jets or drones that violate Taiwan’s territorial airspace will be treated as a “first strike.”
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During a speech to MPs on the threats posed by China’s recent escalatory steps including Chinese airplanes and drones flying close to the island, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng made the comments on Wednesday, October 5.
Chiu did not identify Taipei’s course of action in the event that PLAN aircraft violated the island nation’s 12 nautical mile (22.2 km) territorial line.
Previously, Chiu Kuo-cheng stated, “We said we won’t be the first to strike, which meant we won’t fire the first shot before (China) fires artillery shells or missiles first.”
“However, the meaning has now definitely changed as a result of China’s deployment of tools like drones. Therefore, we have modified and will see any aerial entity that enters Taiwan’s territorial airspace as a first attack, Chiu stated during a meeting of the Foreign and National Defense Committee of the Legislature.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen declared earlier this year that the island’s military will use “necessary and forceful responses as warranted” against what she dubbed Chinese drone harassment and other gray zone warfare methods.
“We will not give China the pretext to create conflict. We will not provoke disputes
Less than 110 miles (177 kilometers) separate Taiwan from China’s shore. The two nations have been run separately for more than 70 years, but that hasn’t stopped China’s ruling Communist Party from claiming the island as its own despite never having had any kind of influence over it.
Beijing and Taipei are currently experiencing their worst level of hostility in decades as a result of the Chinese military conducting extensive military exercises close to the island.
The head of China, Xi Jinping, has declared that the “reunification” of China and Taiwan is inevitable and has refused to rule out using force to achieve this goal.
Early in August, after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, China intensified military pressure on the island by flying fighter jets over the median line.
