China announces fresh military drills around Taiwan
China on Monday held joint combat training exercises around self-governed Taiwan, focusing on anti-submarine and sea assault operations, as Beijing continued to put pressure on the island in response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week.
China on Monday held joint combat training exercises around self-governed Taiwan, focusing on anti-submarine and sea assault operations, as Beijing continued to put pressure on the island in response to a visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week.
The eastern theatre command of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said in a brief statement on China’s Twitter-like Weibo that it will practice conducting anti-submarine attacks and sea raids around the island, which Beijing claims as a breakaway province.
China announced the new drills on Monday, a day after the conclusion of four days of joint live-fire exercises around Taiwan, but did not specify how long the new round of drills would last.
The announcement follows Beijing’s announcement on Sunday of additional military exercises in the Yellow Sea, which lies between China and the Korean Peninsula, and the Bohai Sea, which lies off the northern Chinese coast, expanding drills into new maritime areas.
“The drill on the Bohai Sea will take place between August 8 and September 8, while another on the Yellow Sea will take place between August 7 and 15,” China’s Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) announced on Sunday.
The Taiwan-focused exercise included the first conventional missile launch over Taiwan. Hundreds of Chinese aircraft and warships also flew across the Taiwan Strait’s median line.
The PLA conducted “island saturation attack drills,” deployed “bomber deterrence flights,” and dispatched multiple bomber formations to cross the Taiwan Strait in both directions at the same time on Sunday.
A Chinese defence ministry spokesperson said on Monday that the countermeasures China took in response to Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan were justified and appropriate.
“The Chinese side’s countermeasures are reasonable and appropriate warnings to the US and Taiwan’s provocations and justified actions of safeguarding national sovereignty and security,” spokesperson Wu Qian told reporters, according to the official Xinhua news agency.
“The current tensions across the Taiwan Strait are solely the result of US provocations.” As a result, the US side must accept full responsibility and face serious consequences,” Wu said.