Chinese military drills have erased ‘median line’ sea boundary: Taiwan defense chief

ISTANBUL (AA) – Recent Chinese military operations in response to high-level US visits to Taiwan have “already destroyed” an unofficial sea border between the two sides, the self-ruled island’s defense chief has said.

Taiwan’s Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng told a legislative committee that Beijing has “already destroyed the median line, but if it crosses Taiwan’s red line on the east side of the strait, Taiwan will definitely counter-attack,” referring to a median line about 40 kilometers from Taiwan’s waters which both sides have largely avoided crossing, until now.

It is difficult to restore things to the status before this August, when China launched massive military exercises in response to a trip to Taiwan by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, he said.

Following the visit, the People’s Liberation Army stepped up its almost daily sorties across the Taiwan Strait, crossing into what Taiwan calls its air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

Taiwan’s legislature on Wednesday held a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee where ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmaker Lo Chih-cheng asked Chiu “if the median line still exists.”

“The median line in the Taiwan Strait was originally a tacit agreement, but this tacit agreement has already been destroyed by it (China), and it will be difficult to restore it to its previous state,” Chiu said.