“SMASH THE SEPARATIST SCOUNDRELS”
The Chinese military released two posters titled “Shields of Justice: Smashing Illusions,” and “Arrows of Justice: Control and Denial”, along with a third graphic depicting four locations across the island with targets locking on, following the drill announcement.
China’s state broadcaster said the exercises would focus on sealing off Taiwan’s vital deep-water Port of Keelung to the island’s north and Kaohsiung to Taiwan’s south, the island’s largest port city.
While the PLA practised port blockades around Taiwan during war games last year, this marks the first time it has publicly stated that drills around the island are aimed at “deterrence” of outside military intervention.
The Japanese prime minister’s remarks triggered a surge in Chinese messaging stressing its sovereignty claims. Chinese leader Xi Jinping told US President Donald Trump in November that Taiwan’s “return to China” after World War II was central to Beijing’s vision of the global order.
The first poster appeared to show the armada of civilian ships China is mobilising to help in an attack on Taiwan, vessels with ramps and open decks that could be used to carry out an amphibious assault.
“Any foreign interference that touches the shield (of justice) shall perish!” the poster read. “Any separatist scoundrels who encounter the shield shall be destroyed!”
“I think their (China’s) goal is, as they said, ‘keep the island, not the people,'” said Stephanie Huang, a 56-year-old interior designer. “They just want to save face by claiming Taiwan as part of their own country, but Taiwanese people don’t see it that way.”
“We are who we are; they are who they are.”
Read the full article here
