Taiwan cannot rule out China holding more drills as president marks a year in office

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TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan cannot rule out that China will hold more military drills to “stir up trouble” around the one year anniversary next week of President Lai Ching-te taking office, a senior government spokesperson said on Thursday.

May 20 will be one year since Lai’s inauguration, though his office has yet to announce how the president might mark the day.

China calls Lai a “separatist” and has rebuffed his multiple offers for talks. Lai rejects China’s sovereignty claims over the democratic and separately governed island, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.

Speaking at a regular press conference, Mainland Affairs Council deputy head and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh said China’s threats against Taiwan had become a “normal state of affairs”, noting China held drills shortly after Lai assumed his post last year.

“Therefore, we do not rule out the possibility that the Chinese communists will use the anniversary of President Lai’s inauguration to stir up trouble again and make use of military exercises for political propaganda,” he said.

The council is Taiwan’s top China policymaking body.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office referred Reuters to comments it gave the previous day.

Asked about the upcoming anniversary on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the office said Lai was a “Taiwan Strait crisis maker” who had increased antagonism and confrontation and undermined peace and stability. China’s defence ministry repeated the comments on Thursday.

Taiwan said China staged another of its regular “joint combat readiness patrols” around the island on Sunday, and the defence ministry in Taipei has since reported a rise in Chinese military activities, involving a total of 131 aircraft and 32 warships.

Liang said that Lai had faced a series of “unfriendly” Chinese actions over the past year, including war games.

“Over the past year, I would not say that the interactions between the two sides have been very good – they are indeed tense – but we do not wish to see the situation go on like this,” he added.

“We hope that after May 20, the Chinese communists will not engage in military exercises.”

Last month, China held war games code-named “Strait Thunder-2025A” around Taiwan, the “A” at its end suggesting there could be more to come.

China called its May 2024 drills “Joint Sword – 2024A”, and in October of that year staged “Joint Sword – 2024B”.

(Reporting by Jeanny Kao and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Kate Mayberry)