TAIPEI, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Taiwan is monitoring what it called “abnormal” changes to China’s military leadership after its most senior general was put under investigation, and will not lower its guard as the threat level remains high, the defence minister said on Monday.
China announced on Saturday that Zhang Youxia, second-in-command under President Xi Jinping as vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, and another senior officer, Liu Zhenli, were under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.
“We will continue to closely monitor abnormal changes among the top levels of China’s party, government, and military leadership. The military’s position is based on the fact that China has never abandoned the use of force against Taiwan,” Taiwan Defence Minister Wellington Koo told reporters at parliament.
Zhang has long been seen as Xi’s closest military ally, and is one of the few senior Chinese officers with combat experience, having taken part in the 1979 border conflict with Vietnam.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, sends warplanes and warships into the skies and waters around the island on an almost daily basis, in what Taipei views as a harassment campaign to get the government to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Koo said what the ministry was looking at is not any “single leadership reshuffle that would be enough to draw conclusions”.
Taiwan will use a range of joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance methods, as well as intelligence-sharing, to “grasp” China’s possible intentions, he added.
China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and held its latest round of war games around the island late last month. Taiwan’s government says only the island’s people can decide their future.
Speaking later in the day to lawmakers, Koo said it was clear that the Chinese threat was worsening, pointing to the war games, daily military activities and ongoing rise in China’s defence spending, and Taiwan cannot let down its guard.
“We won’t let the downfall of any one person make us lower our guard or slacken the level of war preparedness we should maintain,” he added.
Taiwan will exchange intelligence with its partners on what changes may be taking places in China’s military command structure, Koo said.
“Regarding the threat to us, we need to focus on early-warning indicators and signs. This has to be continuous not only on the military side but also on the non-military side.”
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Additional reporting by Roger Tung; Editing by Michael Perry)
