(Bloomberg) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping visited the province directly across from Taiwan after the military he leads carried out more major exercises intended to ramp up pressure on the government in Taipei.
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Xi made the trip to Dongshan County in Fujian on Tuesday, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. The report didn’t mention the drills but Dongshan is remembered in China as the site of a victory by the communists in their civil war against the Nationalists in the mid-20th century.
Xi learned “about local efforts to advance rural revitalization across the board, carry forward the revolutionary traditions and strengthen the protection of cultural heritage,” the report on Wednesday said.
The timing of Xi’s journey to Fujian, which has cultural links to Taiwan, likely suggests he was sending a message about his determination to eventually bring Taiwan under Beijing’s control eventually, by force if that’s what is required.
The visit came a day after the People’s Liberation Army held maneuvers around Taiwan some 160 kilometers (100 miles) away in what it said was a warning against “separatist” activity. The drills that included a record number of warplanes crossing a sensitive line between the sides drew criticism from Taiwan and the US, the democracy’s main military backer.
The US government has communicated its concerns about the military actions with Beijing, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell said on Wednesday after talks with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts in Seoul. Japan also told China it was concerned about the situation and scrambled fighter jets.
It was the second time China held major maneuvers around Taiwan since Lai took office in May. The PLA held similar exercises — ones that also appeared to practice a blockade of Taiwan’s main island — twice near the end of his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen’s tenure because she met top US lawmakers.
In a move likely to further irk Beijing, Tsai is expected to visit the US in the coming weeks, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with her travel plans. The Chinese military said right after the latest exercises that it will respond whenever it is “provoked.”
When asked about Tsai’s potential trip, a spokesman for the government department in Beijing that handles matters related to Taiwan said China opposed nations it has ties with having official exchanges with Taipei — a comment made even though she left office some five months ago.
“We also urge the US not to send wrongful signals to Taiwan independence forces,” the spokesman, Chen Binhua, said at a regular briefing.
Beijing refused to deal with Tsai during her eight years in office because she declined to endorse a framework that says both sides of the strait are part of China, and instead she worked to build ties with democracies around the world.
She’s doing more of that in Europe now on a journey that started in the Czech Republic and will include a stop at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Chen also criticized Lai for pushing a “new two-state theory,” referring the president saying in speech last week that neither side of the Taiwan Strait was subordinate to the other.
–With assistance from Soo-Hyang Choi.
(Adds comments from US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell)
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