China's Military Threats Against Taiwan 'Getting More Serious Than Ever,' Foreign Minister Says

Taiwan believes the Chinese military threat is "getting more serious than ever" and that China is preparing to create a new "pretext for practicing their future attack" on the island, Taiwan's foreign minister has said.

In his exclusive interview with The Guardian, Taiwanese Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned that cross-strait communications could be in a more precarious situation after a record-breaking year of military threats and incursions by Chinese forces and after Chinese President Xi Jinping secured a third term in office.

Wu said he believes that China is planning to launch more military exercises to show its force against Taiwan.

"And we are quite sure that the Chinese may want to use another pretext of practicing their future attacks against Taiwan. So this is a military threat against Taiwan," Wu said.

Following U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August, live-fire exercises, including missile launches, were staged around the island. Chinese officials said the exercises were a run-through of blockade tactics they would one day use against Taiwan, according to The Guardian.

About 446 Chinese planes — mostly fighter jets — crossed into Taiwan's air defense identification zone just in August, The Defense Post reported in September, citing a database compiled by AFP based on figures released by Taiwan's defense ministry.

The top Taiwanese diplomat expressed concerns that the growing Chinese incursions in the island's airspace would lead to more accidents, which could further escalate the tensions between the two countries.

Wu said Taiwan had previously maintained some lines of communication with China through businessmen and academics who had "good connections with the Chinese side."

But cross-strait communications have been closing after Xi was reappointed for a third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party and a major purge of the party ranks was launched, according to Wu.

"It is because the Chinese government system has become so authoritarian. It's not like the old days when regular academia could write recommendations to the central government and are able to get in touch with the key decision-makers and tell us what is the thinking of the top leaders, things like that," Wu said.

The Taiwanese foreign minister claimed that in the past few years, Chinese academics have told them that they are no longer connected to China's central government.

Wu noted that aside from increasing threats from the Chinese military, Taiwan is also facing a "combination of pressures," including economic coercion, cyberattacks, legal warfare and diplomatic efforts to isolate their island nation from the international community.

But it did not deter Taiwan from rallying support from its "like-minded democracies."

Wu said the international community "seems to be coping" with China's increasingly aggressive behavior and has become more vocal in their support of Taiwan.

This year, Taiwan welcomed more foreign delegations despite Chinese pressure. These include lawmakers and government officials from Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S.

Along with her congressional delegation, Pelosi reiterated in August the U.S. commitment to support and defend Taiwan from Chinese threats.