Drills to help secessionists see reason: China Daily editorial

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command continued its "Justice Mission 2025" drills on Tuesday, staging simulated assaults against maritime targets and antiair and antisubmarine operations to the north and south of China's Taiwan island.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the drills are intended to deter separatist forces on the island, who are trying to build up the island's military capabilities by purchasing US arms in their pursuit of "Taiwan independence".

The military maneuvers are meant to instill into the minds of the "provocateurs, saboteurs of peace and warmongers" on the island the costly consequences "of turning Taiwan into a powder keg".

The Taiwan question is at the very core of China's core interests, and the drills reinforce a red line that must not be crossed. Attempts to arm the secessionists as part of a bid to contain China will only bring conflict closer.

That the secessionist-minded Lai Ching-te authorities of Taiwan described the drills as "military intimidation to threaten neighboring countries" is wrong and misleading. No matter what Lai and his followers try to suggest to the contrary, there is only one China in the world, and Taiwan is an inalienable part of it — That is the unalterable status of the island.

It is ludicrous that Lai's office should condemn the drills as "unilateral provocation". It is the attempts of Lai and his supporters that pursue "Taiwan independence" by soliciting external military support that jeopardize peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and threaten to bring disaster to Taiwan society.

No matter what Lai says or does, he cannot change the historical and legal fact that Taiwan is part of China, nor can he reverse the historical trend toward Taiwan's reunification with the motherland.

The potential for reduced tensions across the Taiwan Strait is closely tied to the Democratic Progressive Party led by Lai seeing reason and upholding the 1992 Consensus. Doing so would pave the way for more active exchanges and business interactions between people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

However, upon becoming leader of the island in 2024, Lai openly rejected the 1992 Consensus and the one-China principle. Instead, he and his fellow secessionists are doing whatever they can to pursue "Taiwan independence".

The military buildup they are pursuing risks a "head-on" confrontation which will ultimately result in their own destruction. Lai is seeking to raise Taiwan's "security budget" to over 3 percent of the island's GDP, and eventually to 5 percent by 2030, markedly higher than even the level Washington presses other US allies and pawns to reach.

In particular, the Lai authorities unveiled a $40 billion supplementary "security budget" on Nov 26, when Lai claimed "there is no room for compromise" on security. The United States' largest-ever $11.1 billion arms sales to the island, which include multiple types of offensive systems, was announced less than a month after Lai made public the island's largest-ever supplementary spending plan.

These moves disregard the safety and well-being of the people of Taiwan, squandering public money to persist on a dangerous path that only leads to a disastrous abyss.

It is the Lai authorities' exorbitant spending on US weapons that threatens the island's security.

The secessionist forces on the island are being naive if they believe that they can avoid their doom by ingratiating themselves under the military umbrella of the US.

History indicates those who overestimate what Washington can, and perhaps is willing to do, for them have invariably paid a high price for their delusion and misjudgment. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of the PLA to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

But if the Lai authorities continue on their current course they will only further escalate tensions, jeopardize Taiwan's economic lifeline and development prospects, and accelerate their self-destruction.

The Lai authorities have tried to play down the significance of the PLA's drills. But the great lengths they are going to in hyping up the "so far so good security" speak volumes of their growing anxiety.