The Chinese-organized military drills around Taiwan entered their second day on Thursday, with the Chinese military “carrying out simulated attacks on key targets on the island and in the surrounding waters.”
State broadcaster CCTV reported that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA, Chinese Army) “continued its pressure around the island” as part of the exercises, which will last until Monday.
The PLA’s Eastern Theater of Operations ordered “dozens” of raids by “early warning, reconnaissance, attack, bombing and jamming aircraft,” the channel said.
PLA patrolmen “occupied attack positions” through “high-speed maneuvers.”
Likewise, the Xuzhou frigate “carried out tactical operations” in waters east of Taiwan, the chain reported, which showed images of Chinese maritime and air forces in action.
The well-known journalist Hu Xijin explained last night in the local newspaper Global Times that the maneuvers are “an explosion in the hearts and bowels of Taiwan separatists”, while accusing the United States of “increasing arms sales and military aid “to the self-governing island.
China announced the military exercises on Saturday in response to a meeting on Wednesday in California between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
A military spokesman defined the maneuvers as “a serious warning” against “provocation by separatist forces” and a “necessary action to protect the national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of China.
Taiwan called the moves “an irrational act that endangers regional security and stability.”
The situation is reminiscent of that experienced last August, when the visit to Taiwan of the then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, angered Beijing, which responded with military maneuvers around the island to a trip it described as a “farce”. and “deplorable treason”.
Beijing has considered Taiwan a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war to the communist army.
The island is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with China.
