China calls on US to respect Beijing's interests & avoid using Taiwan to gain control

China, on August 8, called on the United States to respect Beijing's interests and drop the notion of using Taiwan as a tool of control. Wu Qian, the spokesman for the Chinese Defence Ministry further added that US must bear the consequences of the current tensions surrounding Taiwan.

"The People’s Republic of China (PRC) urges the US to truly consider Beijing's crucial interests and serious concerns, to give up the illusion that it can use Taiwan to control China, and not to follow further and further along the wrong path," Qian said in a statement.

"The US is deliberately creating a crisis, and at the same time making an excuse to shift blame to others, which China firmly opposes. We urge the US to respect China's core interests and concerns, abandon to use the island of Taiwan to counter China, " Wu Qian said, explaining that China's countermeasures were a "necessary warning" made in response to US provocations.

China-Taiwan conflict

In response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to the breakaway island that Beijing claims is part of its territory, China on August 8 extended the schedule of war games by continuing its unprecedented military exercises around Taiwan. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command, announced on August 8 that it would continue drills in the vicinity of the island of Taiwan, concentrating on anti-submarine and air-to-ship strikes.

From August 4 to August 7, the PLA held joint training exercises involving all of its armed forces in six locations around the island. The PLA's most recent announcement notice did not specify the location of the exercises or when they would conclude. The PLA continued realistic combat-scenario joint exercises in the sea and air space around Taiwan on August 7, practising island capturing drills and bomber deterrence flights in the Taiwan Strait as a rehearsal for a real operation, according to the state-run Global Times.

According to a late-night press release from the PLA Command, its forces continued their joint combat training exercises in the waters and airspace surrounding Taiwan on August 7. The emphasis on August 7 was on testing the capabilities of using joint fires to strike land targets and long-range air targets, according to an early August 8 report from the state-run Xinhua news agency.

Image: AP