Taiwan leader tells troops to keep cool amid Chinese threats

ABC News:

PENGHU, Taiwan — Taiwan’s president told the self-ruled island’s military units Tuesday to keep their cool in the face of daily warplane flights and warship maneuvers by rival China, saying that Taiwan will not allow Beijing to provoke a conflict.

China has kept up military pressure on Taiwan in the weeks following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in early August. Beijing initially retaliated with large military drills in the waters and skies near Taiwan. It fired missiles over the island, some of which landed in Japan’s economic zone, considered a serious escalation, while also sending warships and planes toward the island in large numbers.

President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan must remain restrained despite the daily pressure from China.

“The more provocative enemy soldiers are, the more stable we need to be. We will not allow those on the opposing banks to manufacture a conflict with an inappropriate excuse,” she said during a visit to the navy’s station on Penghu, an archipelago of several dozen islands off Taiwan’s western coast.

She also inspected a radar squadron, an air defense company, and a navy fleet.