A high-ranking Taiwanese official told lawmakers on Thursday (4) that China had internally debated a possible attack on Taiwan’s Silver Islands, but would not do so until 2024.
In 2024, Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, ends her term, which she has held since 2016.
The director general of the National Security Bureau, Chen Ming-tong, did not say how he learned that such a measure had been debated or for what reasons it would not happen in the next few years.
The Chinese Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.
China’s incursions into Taiwan
Taiwan, a self-administered island claimed by China, has complained for more than a year of recurrent incursions by the Chinese Air Force, often into the southwestern part of its air defense zone near the Taiwan-controlled Silver Islands, but with few defenses.
Located between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, these islands are considered by some security experts to be vulnerable to a Chinese attack due to their distance of more than 400 kilometers from Taiwan.
China blames Taiwan and the United States, its most important international supporters, for the simmering tensions in the Taiwan Straits.
“Attack and capture the Silver Islands: this is the situation in which war would be used to force [Taiwan] talking. Our assessment is that this will not happen during the term of President Tsai Ing-wen,” Chen said at a parliamentary meeting.
Additional reporting by Yew Lun Tian in Beijing.
Reference: CNN Brasil
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