Taiwan Military Conducts Nighttime Live Fire Drills

Taiwanese tanks practicing to repel a potential Chinese assault from the sea. That's as the island works to boost its military readiness. The Taiwanese military conducted live fire drills on Thursday night on the Penghu Islands. Situated between Taiwan and China, Penghu is home to the Taiwanese Navy. An important air base is also located there. And the island's air force scrambles military jets from that location to monitor Chinese warplanes when they approach the island. The Chinese military has ramped up its threats toward Taiwan. Besides war games that encircled the island earlier this month, Beijing also held live fire drills this week. The Chinese Communist Party has never ruled Taiwan, but seeks to take control of it. The Chinese leader has voiced a plan to take over within the next three years. The European Union has denounced China's claim over Taiwan. Let's take a look. The European Parliament passed a resolution with wide majority support Thursday, urging Beijing to stop its quote continued military operations, economic coercion and hostile disinformation campaign against the island. Instead, Michael Gowler, a member of the European Parliament, outlined a roadmap for the Chinese Communist Party on how it can win the favor of the Taiwanese people. Perhaps you should seek ways to become attractive for the Taiwanese who live in a democracy and dislike a prospect of being treated like the Hong Kongers. So you should release the Uyghurs from their so-called reeducation camps and the cultural repression of the Tibetans and the incarceration of Falun Gong practitioners and the prosecution of the underground churches. Abide by the international agreement with the UK on 50 years of internal democracy for Hong Kong. Stop harassing your neighbors by ignoring the provisions of the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea. The resolution also calls on the European Union to support Taiwan's participation in international organizations. Under pressure from Beijing, Taiwan is excluded from nearly all formal international organizations, including the World Health Organization.