\n<\/p>\n
China has warned it will \u201ccrush\u201d any foreign attempts to interfere on behalf of Taiwan, after Japan announced plans to deploy missiles near the democratically-governed island.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a firm will, strong determination and a strong ability to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d Peng Qingen, a spokesperson for China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a news conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n list of 4 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cWe will crush all foreign interference,\u201d Peng said, speaking in response to a question on the planned deployment of missiles on a nearby Japanese island.<\/p>\n \u201cJapan\u2019s deployment of offensive weapons in areas adjacent to China\u2019s Taiwan region is extremely dangerous, deliberately creating regional tensions and provoking military confrontation,\u201d Peng said.<\/p>\n The comments follow Japan\u2019s Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi\u2019s announcement on Sunday that Tokyo was moving forward with plans to deploy a missile system on Yonaguni, the country\u2019s westernmost island located 110km (68 miles) off Taiwan\u2019s east coast, which has hosted a Japanese military base since 2016.<\/p>\n Koizumi said the deployment of the medium-range surface-to-air missile system on Yonaguni would enhance Japan\u2019s security.<\/p>\n \u201cWe believe that having this unit in place will actually lower the chances of an armed attack against our country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n China\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs blasted the announcement, describing Japan\u2019s plan as a \u201cdeliberate attempt to create regional tension and provoke military confrontation\u201d.<\/p>\n Koizumi pushed back, saying the Type 03 guided missile system was purely defensive and \u201cintended to counter aircraft and missiles invading our nation\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey are not intended to attack other countries, are deployed throughout Japan, and clearly do not heighten regional tensions,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n Taiwan has welcomed Japan\u2019s announcement of increased military capability on Yonaguni, saying it \u201chelps maintain security in the Taiwan Strait\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, this is helpful to our national interests as Japan has no territorial designs or hostility towards Taiwan,\u201d Taiwan\u2019s Deputy Foreign Minister Francois Wu said.<\/p>\n On Wednesday, Taiwan\u2019s President William Lai Ching-te said the island will introduce a $40bn supplementary defence budget to defend itself in the face of a rising threat from China.<\/p>\n The budget will be allocated over eight years, from 2026 to 2033, and comes after Lai had already pledged to raise defence spending to 5 percent of the island\u2019s gross domestic product (GDP).<\/p>\n Beijing views Taiwan as its own territory and has promised to unite the island with the Chinese mainland, an aspiration that Taipei says infringes on its sovereignty and that only Taiwan\u2019s citizens can decide their future.<\/p>\n Unveiling the almost $40bn defence spending package on Wednesday, President Lai said history had proven that trying to compromise in the face of aggression brought nothing but \u201censlavement\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNational sovereignty and the core values of freedom and democracy are the very foundation of our nation,\u201d Lai said, adding that Taiwan\u2019s spending showed its determination to defend itself.<\/p>\n Wellington Koo, Taiwan\u2019s defence minister, said the $40bn package was an upper limit for the special budget, and it would be used to buy precision-strike missiles as well as investments in joint development and procurement between Taiwan and the United States.<\/p>\n China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson greeted news of Taipei\u2019s increased spending on weapons as a waste.<\/p>\n \u201cThey squander funds that could be used to improve people\u2019s livelihoods and develop the economy on purchasing weapons and currying favour with external powers,\u201d Peng told reporters.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will only plunge Taiwan into disaster,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Amid growing tension in the Taiwan Strait, Japan said on Tuesday it had scrambled aircraft after detecting a suspected Chinese drone off Yonaguni.<\/p>\n \u201cWe confirmed that an unmanned aerial vehicle believed to be Chinese, passed between Yonaguni Island and Taiwan on Monday,\u201d Japan\u2019s Defence Ministry said on X.<\/p>\n Relations between Tokyo and Beijing have recently plummeted to their lowest level in years due to remarks by Japan\u2019s new Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who suggested that Tokyo could intervene militarily in any Chinese attack on Taiwan.<\/p>\n Takaichi\u2019s off-the-cuff remark in the Japanese parliament about a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan triggering Japanese military action prompted a furious response from Beijing that has included a boycott by Chinese citizens on travelling to Japan.<\/p>\n Takaichi has declined Beijing\u2019s demands to retract her remarks on Taiwan, while Tokyo has said it is willing to hold talks with Beijing at all levels to ease tensions.<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Bonnie Liao<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n China has warned it will \u201ccrush\u201d any foreign attempts to interfere on behalf of Taiwan, after Japan announced plans to deploy missiles near the democratically-governed island. \u201cWe have a firm will, strong determination and a strong ability to defend our national sovereignty and territorial integrity,\u201d Peng Qingen, a spokesperson for China\u2019s Taiwan Affairs Office, told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-pacific"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3426\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
\u2018Only plunge Taiwan into disaster\u2019<\/h2>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"