Link to Article: China stages military drills near Taiwan | NHK WORLD-JAPAN News
China staged a military exercise on Friday off the coast of Taiwan. This happened after Taiwan finished its yearly military exercise on the same day. Taiwan reported that there were 10 aircraft that took part in the exercise and entered into Taiwan’s air defense zone. These aircraft were a mix of fighters and anti-submarine planes. Chinese officials have stated that the exercises off the coast of Taiwan are to “improve the combat capabilities of the military in the area”. China has also stated that their exercises “will be staged routinely depending on the situation in the Taiwan Strait and the need to protect national sovereignty and security”.
This is yet another example of China trying to force its military might upon Taiwan. China has held military exercises off the coast of Taiwan repeatedly in the past much to the anger of Taiwan. These exercises done by the Chinese military meant to threaten Taiwan have caused Taiwan to create a plan to spend an additional nine billion US dollars on their military over the next five years. Taiwan hopes that with this increased military spending they will be better able to defend themselves from the threat that China poses to them and be better able to keep their sovereignty.
Taiwan is a non-recognized state that is trying to become a recognized country. Taiwan is not recognized as a country since it would need recognition from the UN security council to become one. This will not happen since China is one of the permanent members of the security council and it will never let Taiwan become a country since they claim it as part of China. The United States will also not recognize Taiwan as a country because it is unclear if the United States recognized Taiwan if China would count that as an act of war and declare war upon the United States.