(Reuters) – The U.S. State Department said on Saturday that the United States was “deeply concerned” about China’s military exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait, and strongly urged the country to act with restraint.
“Using a normal, routine, democratic transition as an excuse for military provocations risks escalation and erodes long-standing norms that for decades have maintained peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait,” the State Department said in a statement.
The department issued the statement after China ended two days of war games around Taiwan in which it simulated bomber attacks and practiced ship boarding, exercises that Taiwan condemned as “blatant provocation” on Saturday.
China, which claims to democratically rule Taiwan as its own territory, launched the “Joint Sword – 2024A” exercises three days after Lai Ching-te became president of Taiwan, a man Beijing calls a “separatist.”
Beijing said the exercises were “punishment” for Lai’s inauguration speech on Monday, in which he said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “not subordinate to each other”, which China saw as a declaration of that the two are separate countries.
(Reporting by Brendan O’Brien in Chicago; Editing by Bill Berkrot)
