US-Taiwan diplomatic tango irks China, holds military drills around island

Days after the Quad summit ended in Japan and despite Joe Biden's warning to China that it would intervene militarily if Beijing tried to reunify with Taiwan by force, China announced drills around the Island.

China regards Taiwan as its province even though the country has had separate governance for decades now.

Xinhua news agency quoted a Chinese defence spokesperson as having said that the recent patrol and training exercise by China around Taiwan Island were necessary actions against the collusion between Taiwan and the United States.

The PLA Eatern Theater Commant had recently organised a joint war-preparedness alert patrol and combat training exercises involving troops of multiple services and arms in the waters and airspace around the Taiwan Island.

Tan Kefei, the spokesperson for the Ministry of National Defense, said Seeking "Taiwan independence" is doomed to fail, and so is supporting such actions, Tan said, adding that by playing the "Taiwan card" to contain China, the United States is putting the situation in jeopardy.

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This comes after President Joe Biden said on Monday that the U.S. would intervene militarily if China were to invade Taiwan, saying the burden to protect Taiwan is “even stronger" after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. traditionally has avoided making such an explicit security guarantee to Taiwan, with which it no longer has a mutual defence treaty, instead maintaining a policy of "strategic ambiguity" about how far it would be willing to go if China invaded.

The 1979 Taiwan Relations Act, which has governed U.S. relations with the island, does not require the U.S. to step in militarily to defend Taiwan if China invades, but makes it American policy to ensure Taiwan has the resources to defend itself and to prevent any unilateral change of status in Taiwan by Beijing.

(With agency inputs)