A group of Chinese bombers conducting “confrontation drills” recently flew near Taiwan, Beijing’s state media claimed Sunday, just days ahead of a meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea.
Without giving a date or specific location for the wargames, the Weibo account for Chinese state television’s military channel said that “several J-10 fighters flew in combat formation to a designated target airspace, and multiple H-6K bombers went to the waters and airspace around Taiwan island to carry out simulated confrontation drills,” as reported by Reuters.
Taiwan, meanwhile, has called the Chinese report a propaganda ploy, with the island’s defense ministry calling the report “clearly a public-opinion operation aimed at intimidation.”
“We call on our citizens to remain united in the face of such cognitive operations, to uphold freedom and democracy, and to defend our homeland together,” it said in a statement.
And on Monday morning Taiwan’s defense ministry reported that in the past 24 hours it only tracked four Chinese military aircraft flying near the territory, including three fighter jets and one support aircraft.
But China’s state television report played a video of bombs being dropped, claiming the coast of Taiwan can be seen even though the image is not clear.
Xi, who sees Taiwan and Chinese sovereign territory and has pledged to reunify with Taipei, by force if necessary, is set to meet with Trump later this week in South Korea as the American president travels through Asia.
Trump has insisted that the U.S. and China will “come away with” a trade deal following the meeting.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday that Taiwan should not be worried about the talks.
