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CHINA imposed visa bans and other sanctions on Taiwanese political figures accused of separatism today, as it and the United States squared up for more armed manoeuvres along its coasts.
The Communist Party’s Taiwan Work Office barred politicians including the self-governing island’s main envoy to the US, Bi-khim Hsiao, a number of legislators and anti-China activist Lin Fei-fan from visiting the Chinese mainland or the special administrative zones of Hong Kong and Macao.
Cross-strait trade between the mainland and Taiwan, which is internationally recognised as part of China but has ruled itself since becoming the last refuge of China’s pre-revolution government in 1949, grew exponentially from 1979 to 2020, with the People’s Republic accounting for around a quarter of Taiwanese trade by that time.
But Taiwan has passed amendments to its national security laws in recent years aimed at stopping China “poaching” Taiwanese talent following a rise in emigration to the mainland and using accusations of “economic espionage” to drive out Chinese companies and their subsidiaries, moves Beijing sees as attempts to disrupt the closer relations essential to peaceful reunification, and as part of a US-directed effort to isolate it economically.
The US and South Korea announced today that their biggest joint war games in years will begin on Monday, with tens of thousands of troops, warships, aircraft and tanks simulating war on North Korea, including a provocative “decapitation exercise” role-playing the assassination of its leader Kim Jong Un which has prompted protests from Pyongyang.
The war games follow China’s announcement of further drills around Taiwan on Monday.
Chinese joint exercises with Thailand took place at the weekend while the US, Australia and Japan conducted drills with Indonesia in rival shows of force.
Germany flew a squadron of fighter jets to Indonesia today in a bid to show it could move aircraft 8,000 miles to the China seas within 24 hours, underlining the more aggressive foreign policy adopted by Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht echoed US rhetoric about an alliance of democracies against Russia and China, saying the Far Eastern mission showed “we are at the side of all those who stand for our values such as democracy, freedom and security.”
