By Philip Lenczycki
Daily Caller News Foundation
The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is gathering military units on its coast and called for “integrated development” with Taiwan on Tuesday, according to reports from both governments.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense warned that the PRC is in the process of “permanently” increasing the number of airfields on its coast, according to its annual National Defense Report published on Tuesday. At the same time, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and State Council announced that the PRC will promote economic integration and bilateral cooperation between Fujian province and Taiwan in order to achieve the “peaceful reunification of the motherland,” the Chinese state-run media outlet China Daily reported.
“The PRC has been completing the construction of airfields along the coastline of its East and South [theaters of command] and realigning new fighters and [unmanned aerial vehicles] to station there permanently to form a superior air power, put pressure on air defense and seize air superiority in the event of war across the Taiwan Strait,” Taiwan’s National Defense Report cautioned.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense also reported that the PRC is “conducting military and non-military activities to make harassment and incursions against us and using targeted strategic arrangements and planned realistic combat training and exercises to strengthen its preparedness against Taiwan.”
The PRC military has violated Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on an almost daily basis during President Joe Biden’s presidency, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense.
In response to communist China’s aggression, Taiwan’s Armed Forces have created a “special budget for enhancing naval and air combat power” and have adopted a “whole-of-society defense structure” that employs “an innovative and asymmetric mindset to build up an overall credible combat power to exploit the vulnerability of potential PRC’s military invasion,” according to the report.
While the PRC establishes new military bases on its coast, the CCP Central Committee and the State Council have also tapped Fujian province — which sits directly across the Straits from Taiwan — to serve as a so-called “demonstration zone for the integrated development across the Taiwan Strait,” China Daily reported.
In order to create the “demonstration zone” in Fujian, the PRC has released a circular outlining “21 specific measures,” such as increasing academic exchanges and commercial cooperation, according to China Daily.
“Efforts will be made to deepen industrial cooperation between the two sides and help agriculture, fisheries and small and medium-sized enterprises from Taiwan to develop in Fujian,” the circular stated, China Daily reported.
“Policies and systems will be optimized to promote the well-being of Taiwan compatriots and ensure they enjoy equal treatment as their mainland counterparts,” the government circular reportedly added.
The Chinese Embassy and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the U.S. did not respond immediately to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
This story originally was published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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