Beijing’s show of force comes in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent visit to the United States.
China has kicked off a third day of live fire exercises near Taiwan in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent trip to the United States.
Chinese fighter jets carried out “simulated strikes” near the self-governing island during the exercises, which also involved the aircraft carrier Shandong, the Chinese military said on Monday.
“Multiple parties of H-6K fighters with live ammunition… conducted multiple waves of simulated strikes against key targets on the island of Taiwan,” the Eastern Theater Command said in a statement.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 70 Chinese military aircraft and 11 ships around Taiwan.
“The ROC armed forces have been monitoring the situation and have ordered CAP aircraft, naval vessels and land-based missile systems to respond to these activities,” the ministry said in a statement posted on social media, referring to the Taiwanese military’s official name. Republic. from China.
The ministry said 35 of the aircraft detected crossed the centerline of the Taiwan Strait and entered the area’s air defense identification zone.
The three-day operation dubbed “Joint Sword,” which kicked off Saturday, is designed to practice an encirclement of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory and has threatened to take by force if necessary.
China’s military said the exercises were designed to practice “locking down” Taiwan, while state television said they had formed a “multi-directional island-wide blockade situation.”
The government of Taiwan has condemned the exercises, while the United States has urged China to exercise restraint.
Japan said Monday it was closely monitoring exercises taking place in waters close to Japan’s Okinawan islands, with cabinet chief Hirokazu Matsuno saying peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait are important to the security of both Japan and the international community.
The Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, three other warships and a support vessel came within 230 kilometers (143 miles) of Japan’s Miyako island, Japan’s defense ministry said.
Tsai met with Speaker of the US House of Representatives Kevin McCarthy in California last week, sparking a furious backlash from Beijing, which has labeled its nationalist Democratic Progressive Party as separatists.
A parliamentary democracy whose disputed status stems from the outcome of the 1927-1949 Chinese Civil War, Taiwan is governed separately from mainland China but is officially recognized by only a handful of countries.
The US does not officially recognize Taiwan, but has resisted unilateral efforts to change the status quo and has supported the island’s defenses through arms sales for decades.
The US State Department said on Sunday it is closely monitoring the situation and that Beijing should not turn Tsai’s visit “into something it is not or use it as a pretext to overreact”.
The US Navy said Monday it sailed the USS Milius, a guided-missile destroyer, near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea to maintain “freedom of navigation” in the strategic waterway.
Beijing, which claims about 90 percent of the waterway, condemned the passage as an “illegal” encroachment.
