TAIPEI, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Taiwan is monitoring what it called “abnormal” changes in China’s military leadership after its most senior general was placed under investigation, and will not lower its guard as the threat level remains high, the defense 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 official, Liu Zhenli, were under investigation for suspected serious violations of discipline and law.
“We will continue to closely monitor the abnormal changes among the highest 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’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo told reporters in 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 considers democratically governed Taiwan its own territory, sends warplanes and warships into the skies and waters around the island almost daily, in what Taipei views as a campaign of harassment to get the government to accept Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Koo said that what the ministry was looking at was not a “reshuffle of one leadership 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 “catch” 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 over the island late last month. Taiwan’s government says only the people of the island can decide their future.
Speaking later to lawmakers, Koo said it was clear that the Chinese threat was getting worse, pointing to China’s war games, daily military activities and the continued increase in defense spending, and Taiwan cannot lower its guard.
“We will not allow the fall of any one person to make us lower our guard or reduce the level of preparedness for war that we must maintain,” he added.
Taiwan will exchange intelligence with its partners on what changes may be taking place in China’s military command structure, Koo said.
“Regarding the threat to us, we must focus on indicators and early warning signs. This must 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)