Taiwanese foreign minister says China drills part of a game-plan for invasion

TAIPEI — Taiwan’s foreign minister said on Tuesday that China was using the military drills it launched in protest against U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit as a game-plan to prepare for an invasion of the self-ruled island.

Joseph Wu, who offered no time-table for a possible invasion of Taiwan, which is claimed by China as its own, said Taiwan would not be intimidated even as the drills continued with China often breaching the unofficial median line down the Taiwan Strait.

“China has used the drills in its military play-book to prepare for the invasion of Taiwan,” Wu told a news conference in Taipei.

“It is conducting largescale military exercises and missile launches, as well as cyberattacks, disinformation, and economic coercion, in an attempt to weaken public morale in Taiwan.

“After the drills conclude, China may try to routinize its action in an attempt to wreck the long-term status quo across the Taiwan Strait.”

Such moves threatened regional security and provided “a clear image of China’s geostrategic ambitions beyond Taiwan”, Wu said, urging greater international support to stop China effectively controlling the strait.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office responded to Wu’s comments by saying he was a “diehard” supporter of Taiwan independence, and his remarks “distort the truth and obscure the facts”.

A Pentagon official said on Monday that Washington was sticking to its assessment that China would not try to invade Taiwan for the next two years.

Wu spoke as military tensions simmer after the scheduled end on Sunday of four days of the largest-ever Chinese exercises surrounding the island - drills that included ballistic missile launches and simulated sea and air attacks in the skies and seas surrounding Taiwan.

Pelosi said on Tuesday her visit to Taiwan had been “absolutely” worth it and hard harsh words for Beijing.

“We cannot allow the Chinese government to isolate Taiwan,” she said in an interview with NBC News. China managed to exclude Taiwan from the World Health Organization, she said, but “they’re not going to say who can go to Taiwan.”