Taiwan tracking China activity but cannot say if there will be more drills post-national day

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TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan is tracking Chinese activities for any early warning signs but cannot answer hypothetical questions about whether there will be a repeat of last year’s war games following Taiwan’s national day, the defence minister said on Friday.

Taiwan, formally called the Republic of China, celebrates its national day next Friday with a keynote speech by President Lai Ching-te. China, which views the island as its own, staged a day of war games around the island last year shortly after that same event in what it said was a warning to “separatist acts”.

Asked about the possibility of a repeat of that this year, Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo told reporters at parliament that the armed forces are keeping a watch.

“We will continue to monitor relevant developments in China and gather any early warning intelligence. We will closely track and respond accordingly,” he said. “Regarding hypothetical scenarios, I am unable to provide answers at this time.”

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China is in the middle of its own week-long national day holiday.

Koo on Thursday visited military bases on the Penghu Islands, which sit strategically in the Taiwan Strait though closer to the main island of Taiwan than China’s coast.

His ministry published a picture of him in front of a Sky Bow III missile battery, a Taiwan-developed surface-to-air missile with a similar mission scope to the U.S.-made Patriots which Taiwan also operates.

“Facing severe enemy threats, Penghu serves as a critical defence zone for our combat operations,” the ministry cited him as telling the troops.

Koo declined to comment when asked by reporters about whether the Sky Bow III has now been fully deployed to Taiwan’s offshore islands, saying only that the system has entered service.

Penghu is home to one of Taiwan’s most important air bases.

Apart from war games, the last of which China staged around Taiwan in April, Chinese fighter jets and warships operate almost daily in the Taiwan Strait and waters and skies off the island’s north, south and east coasts.

China says Taiwan’s president is a “separatist”. He rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)