Taipei: Taiwan has announced extending its mandatory military service from the current four months to one year from 2024 in the face of growing threats from neighboring China, news agency Reuters quoted President Tsai Ing-wen as saying on Tuesday. The sea and sky around Taiwan is one of China’s biggest ever incursions, according to data from the island’s defense ministry, media reports said. The BBC said it said 71 Chinese air force aircraft, including fighter jets and drones, had entered Taiwan’s so-called air defense identification zone. Taiwan is self-governing – but China views it as a breakaway province with which it will eventually be reunited.
The BBC reported that tensions between the two sides have risen steadily in recent months. In August, Beijing was angered by a visit to the island by Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, the most senior American politician to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
China responded to that visit by holding its largest-ever military exercise in the seas surrounding Taiwan, and also blocked some trade with the island.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu condemned China’s action at that time as extremely provocative. China has never said that it will not use force to bring Taiwan under its control. On Monday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said 43 Chinese aircraft had crossed the so-called middle line, an informal buffer separating the two sides, inside the air defense zone, the BBC reported.
China said it had conducted “strike drills” around Taiwan on Sunday in response to provocations by the island and the US. Washington has always followed a diplomatic yardstick on the issue of Taiwan.
On the one hand, it follows a One China policy, which is a cornerstone of its relations with Beijing. Under this policy, the US acknowledges that there is only one Chinese government, and has formal relations with Beijing rather than Taiwan.
But it also maintains close ties with Taiwan and sells arms to it under the Taiwan Relations Act, which states that the US must provide the island with the means to defend itself.
(with agency inputs)