China’s release of images reinforces vow to keep Taiwan as a territory

Beijing: China’s military put out a strong message on Taiwan on Saturday, vowing to “safeguard the territory of our motherland.”
The People’s Liberation Army air force released a video and series of commemorative envelopes showing recent Chinese air force missions around the island, which Beijing views as a breakaway province.
“It is the sacred duty of any PLA pilot to safeguard the territory of our motherland,” reads the text on the envelopes, which feature pictures of PLA warplanes and pilots on flights near Taiwan.
State-run news agency Xinhua reported Saturday that the images were taken by China’s PLA pilots during missions around Taiwan that began April 18.
“Every time we flew the H-6K bomber over the island, my comrades and I could clearly see the wonderful landscape of our motherland, before recording the scenes with cameras,” it quoted pilot Wu Yuepeng as saying. “They’re not only the witness to our efforts for a stronger country and a stronger military, but also witness to us carrying out missions in the new era.”
The Xinhua report was posted on China’s English-language military website, alongside an article from the state-owned China Daily newspaper.
“The recent live-fire drills carried out by the People’s Liberation Army have sent an explicit and clear message — we aim to pursue peaceful reunification with sincerity and great efforts, but we have the resolve, the confidence and the ability to defeat secessionist attempts in any form, to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” a spokesman for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office was quoted as saying in the China Daily report.