Taiwan says blockade would be an act of war as China conducts more drills

Following China’s drills last week, Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo stated that a real Chinese blockade would be an act of war with far-reaching ramifications for international trade.

China, which considers democratically controlled Taiwan to be its own territory, has conducted practically daily military exercises surrounding the island over the last five years, including war games that involved blockades and port raids.

The Taiwanese administration rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.

China’s most recent war drills surrounding the island, which took place last week, involved simulated blockades of key ports and localities, as well as assaults on sea and ground targets, Beijing said.

Speaking to reporters at parliament, Koo noted that while those “Joint Sword-2024B” delineated the exercise area, there were no no-flight or no-sail zones.

Pointing to data that showed one-fifth of global freight passed through the Taiwan Strait, a blockade would have consequences beyond Taiwan, Koo said.

“The international community could not sit by and just watch.”

While those war games last only a day, Chinese military activity has continued.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced earlier on Wednesday that a Chinese aircraft carrier group traveled across the Taiwan Strait, heading north after passing through waters near the Taiwan-controlled Pratas islands.

The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Japan announced last month that the same carrier had entered its adjacent waters for the first time.

China has previously sailed its carriers through the critical strait, notably in December, right before Taiwan’s elections.

China says it alone has jurisdiction over the nearly 180-kilometer (110 miles) wide waterway that is a major passageway for international trade.
Taiwan and the United States dispute that, saying the Taiwan Strait is an international waterway.

The US Navy regularly sails through the strait to assert freedom of navigation rights.

Other allied nations, like Canada, Germany and Britain have also carried out similar missions, to the anger of Beijing.

Taiwan has also been worried about China’s use of its coast guard in recent war games, and is especially concerned Taiwanese civilian ships may be boarded and inspected as Beijing seeks to assert legal authority in the strait.

Taiwan’s coast guard, in a report to parliament on Wednesday, said if that happened its ships would respond under the principle of “neither provoking nor backing down” and stop such acts “with all its strength.”