The official spokesman of the PLA’s Eastern Area Combat Command, Shi Yi, on Thursday called on the United States to work together to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region.
The statement was prompted by the passage of the US missile destroyer USS William P. Lawrence through the Strait on April 23.
Shi Yi emphasised that statements by US representatives “substitute the truth with lies, distort legal norms and mislead the international community.” His words were published on the official account of the PLA Eastern Area Combat Command’s Eastern Zone on the WeChat social network. He urged the US to stop distorting facts and join hands to promote peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
China’s Eastern Combat Command Zone organised surveillance and escort of the US warship as it crossed the strait using naval and air forces.
Escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait
The escalation around Taiwan comes after a visit to the island in August 2022 by Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives. China, which regards Taiwan as its territory, reacted negatively to Pelosi’s visit, seeing it as US support for Taiwanese separatism. China’s response has been large-scale military exercises in the region.
Official relations between China’s central government and its island province were severed in 1949 after Kuomintang forces, who lost the civil war to the Chinese Communist Party, moved to Taiwan. However, business and unofficial contacts between mainland China and the island resumed in the late 1980s.
Since the early 1990s, interaction has been conducted through non-governmental structures: the Beijing-based Association for the Development of Ties between the Two Banks of the Taiwan Strait and the Taipei-based Taiwan Strait Exchange Foundation.
