台湾、ミサイル実射演習

【台北ＡＦＰ＝時事】台湾軍は３日、毎年恒例の最大規模の軍事演習を前に、２日間のミサイル実射演習を開始した。（写真は台湾・屏東県で行われたミサイル実射演習に参加する台湾軍の車両）
　台湾国防部（国防省）報道官は、最南端の屏東県で始まった演習で、米国製対戦車ミサイル「ＴＯＷ２Ａ」を発射したと明らかにした。
　中台関係が緊張感を増す中、中国は過去１年間に台湾周辺で２度の大規模な軍事演習を行っている。
　今回の台湾のミサイル実射演習は、中台を隔てる約１８０キロの台湾海峡とその周辺での中国軍による上空や海上での作戦を想定している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2023/07/04-16:47）

Taiwan kicked off a two-day missile live-firing test on Monday ahead of its largest annual military exercises as the island ramps up preparations against an increasingly assertive China.
The 23 million Taiwanese people live under constant threat of invasion by Beijing, which views the island democracy as part of its territory to be seized one day.
Soldiers fired US-made TOW 2A anti-tank missiles in southern Pingtung county on Monday in an exercise aimed at enhancing defence operations based on practicality, defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said.
So our soldiers could have the confidence and capability at wartime, and execute their responsibility to defend the country, he told reporters.
The missile firings come as relations between Taipei and Beijing are increasingly strained, with China conducting two major military exercises around Taiwan in the past year.
The latest was in April, when Beijing simulated targeted strikes on Taiwan and encirclement of the island. State media also reported dozens of planes practising an aerial blockade.
Those war games were in response to President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California that month.
Monday's and Tuesday's missile tests come against the backdrop of aerial and naval manoeuvres by Beijing in and around the Taiwan Strait, a 180-kilometre-wide (122-mile-wide) passage between the island and mainland China.
Eight Chinese warplanes approached Taiwan's contiguous zone, the band of sea within 24 nautical miles (44 kilometres) of its coast, last month.
In May, China's Shandong aircraft carrier group sailed through the Taiwan Strait in a rare voyage.
Relations have not fared better in the diplomatic sphere. Since the election of Tsai, who rejects China's claim to Taiwan, Beijing has refused to speak with her government.
Taiwan's immigration department announced last week it had rejected applications by Chinese tourism officials to visit the island for a mid-July international travel fair.
Citing the overall cross-strait situation, the immigration agency said there were doubts about the necessity, urgency and irreplaceability of the participation of Chinese tourism officials. Only tourism operators from China had their visas approved.