China's Peoples' Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers perform a drill at the Ngong Shuen Chau Barracks in Hong Kong on July 1, 2015.
Taipei: Taiwan said yesterday it had filed a protest with China over a military exercise it slammed for portraying the island as a target, despite improved ties between the two former bitter rivals.
Chinese state channel CCTV broadcast a video clip earlier this month showing fully armed soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army running towards a red building with a silhouette similar to that of Taiwan’s Presidential Office.
The footage has sparked a backlash from the island’s media and politicians because of the similarities to the building in the heart of the capital Taipei.
It came against growing public concern over China's growing influence on Taiwan under the current Beijing-friendly Kuomintang leadership.
“Through the contact mechanism, we’ve lodged a solemn protest,” Wu Mei-hung, spokeswoman for Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday.
“This hurt the feelings of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and it is unacceptable to people inTaiwan or the international community,” said defence ministry spokesman David Lo.
The Chinese authorities played down the event.
“These are regular annual exercises. They are not aimed at any particular target,” China’s defence ministry said.
Although ties between China and Taiwan have improved markedly since Ma took office in 2008, fears of a Chinese invasion remain.
Taiwan split from China in 1949 after a civil war, but China sees it as part of its territory awaiting reunification -- by force if necessary.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, China has more than 1,500 ballistic and cruise missiles trained on the island.
Meanwhile, China said yesterday it had every right to drill in the East China Sea close to waters disputed with Japan, adding that it did not recognise a “unilateral” Japanese median line setting out a boundary between the two in the waters.
Japan this week called on China to halt construction of oil-and-gas exploration platforms in the East China Sea close to waters claimed by both nations, concerned that Chinese drills could tap reservoirs that extend into Japanese territory.
Patrol ships and aircraft from both countries have been shadowing each other in the area over the past couple of years, raising fears of a confrontation and clash.
In an escalation of the latest dispute, Japan released aerial photographs of China’s construction in the area, accusing it of unilateral development and a halfhearted attitude towards a 2008 agreement to jointly develop resources there.
China resumed exploration in the East China Sea two years ago, Japan said. In 2012, Japan's government angered China by buying a disputed island chain there from private owners.
Before then, China had curtailed activities under an agreement with Japan to jointly develop undersea resources in disputed areas.
The platforms are being erected on the Chinese side of a median line delineating the exclusive economic zones of the two countries, according to a Japanese ministry official said.
China's Foreign Ministry said its drilling activities in waters which are not disputed and under Chinese administration are “completely appropriate and legal”.
“China and Japan have not yet delineated maritime boundaries in the East China Sea, and China does not recognise the Japanese side’s unilateral marking out of a so-called ‘median line’,” the ministry said in a statement.
China's position is that it had a 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone, and its continental shelf in the East China Sea extends to the Okinawa Trough, it added.
In a separate statement, China’s Foreign Ministry said that it
was “extremely concerned" Japan had allowed a visit by former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui, a man despised by Beijing for asserting the self-ruled island's sovereignty.
“Lee Teng-hui is a stubborn Taiwan splittist. The Japanese side ignored China's stern representations and provided convenience for him to visit Japan and engage in Taiwan separatist activities,” it said.
China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its own and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control.
Agencies
