Chinese President Xi Jinping made a surprise trip this week to the province of Fujian, a coastal region approximately 110 miles from the island of Taiwan.
Xi conducted an “inspection tour” of the coastal region Tuesday and Wednesday, just days after fighter planes and warships scrambled across the Taiwan Strait in a comprehensive war game that spooked the island territory and its allies.
Fujian is the closest Chinese province to the island of Taiwan and shares a range of cultural, ethnic, and racial similarities with the majority of Taiwanese citizens. They are also economically linked via cooperative trade agreements.
Chinese state media reported that Xi toured provincial villages and learned about the importance of fishing and seafood to the local economy.
Xi, who is also the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee general secretary and Central Military Commission chairman, praised Fujian for its development and urged officials to renew their commitment to modernizing the local economy.
It was Xi’s first visit to the province in years and one of only a handful of such trips he has taken this year.
Throughout the inspection tour, Xi did not acknowledge this week’s simulated attack on Taiwan.
Troops from across the various branches of the Chinese armed forces participated Monday in military drills to the north, south, east, and west of Taiwan. The drills included the deployment of fighter planes, warships, and even one of China’s aircraft carriers.
The encirclement of the small island was intended as a warning against President Lai Ching-te, who gave a keynote address last week rebuking the CCP’s continued claims of sovereignty over Taiwan.
“The Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other. On this land, democracy and freedom are growing and thriving,” Lai said in the address last week. “The People’s Republic of China has no right to represent Taiwan.”
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Taiwan, known as the Republic of China, is a disputed island territory east of mainland China. The island severed ties to the People’s Republic of China in 1949 when Nationalist movement leader Chiang Kai-shek and his republican government took the former Japanese colony as a stronghold amid the growing communist revolution led by Mao Zedong.
The United States maintains a perspective of “strategic ambiguity” on the Taiwan question. Its “One China policy” affirms the legitimate sovereignty of the People’s Republic of China while simultaneously supporting the Taiwanese people’s right to self-governance.