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PLA conducts live-fire drills in Taiwan Strait after Beijing calls Lai speech ‘reckless’
Beginning of exercise coincides with completion of Beijing’s fisheries resources survey conducted in waters east of Taiwan
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Albee Zhangin Shanghai
Beijing launched a two-day live-fire drill in the Taiwan Strait on Thursday, coinciding with the end of a fisheries resources survey east of Taiwan and soon after Beijing labelled a speech by Taiwan’s leader as reckless and provocative.
The drill will run from 6am to 6pm on Thursday and Friday, according to a navigation warning issued by Beijing’s maritime safety administration on Wednesday.
It comes days after Taiwanese leader William Lai Ching-te said Taiwan was “not subordinate to the People’s Republic of China” and that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would never allow a “democratic Taiwan” to regress into “China Taiwan” – comments that drew strong criticism from Beijing.
In Lai’s speech at the DPP annual convention on Sunday, he called on party members to oppose the “red terror” coming from Beijing.
On Wednesday, Zhang Han, spokeswoman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said Lai’s remarks “exposed his unchanging ‘Taiwan independence’ stance” and that his latest speech “recklessly challenged the one-China principle”.
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