Bipartisan House China panel slams Beijing’s Taiwan drills as ‘deliberate escalation’
China conducts two-day military exercises around Taiwan with rockets, bombers and assault ships as House Select Committee on China warns of deliberate escalation by Beijing.
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Bipartisan lawmakers on the Select Committee on China accused Beijing of escalating tensions in the region on Tuesday, warning that Capitol Hill had taken notice of their military display around Taiwan.
"As the world turns toward a new year, the People’s Liberation Army’s live-fire military exercises around Taiwan represent a deliberate escalation by Beijing," the committee’s chairman, Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., and ranking member Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., said in a joint press release.
CHINA SURROUNDS TAIWAN WITH WARSHIPS, FIGHTER JETS IN LARGEST MILITARY DRILLS ON RECORD
Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., is seen in the Cannon Tunnel on April 30, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"These drills are intended to intimidate Taiwan and other democracies in the region and to undermine peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific."
Moolenaar and Krishnamoorthi’s statement comes as China conducts a two-day show of force in the Taiwan Strait. The country fired rockets into the international waters around Taiwan and deployed amphibious assault ships, bombers, drones and other vessels to the area.
China is conducting exercises on all four sides of Taiwan, grounding international flights.
Taiwan's fighter jets prepare to take off at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)
This is not the first time China has engaged in saber-rattling around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.
President Donald Trump, in a statement on Monday, said he was not worried about China’s display of force, adding that he has a "great relationship" with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Trump noted that China has been conducting naval and military exercises in the region for 20 years.
