Beijing’s show of force comes in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent visit to the United States.
China will hold live fire exercises near Taiwan for a third day in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s high-profile trip to the United States.
Chinese warplanes and warships carried out simulated attacks on the self-governing island over the weekend, sparking protests in Taipei.
Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry said Monday 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” aims to rehearse an encirclement of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. China’s state broadcaster CCTV said on Sunday that the exercises targeted “key targets on the island of Taiwan and surrounding waters”.
Monday’s exercises are expected to include live-fire exercises off China’s Fujian province, just about 50 miles (80 km) south of Taiwan’s Matsu Islands.
Tsai’s meeting last week with Speaker of the US House of Representatives in California sparked a furious reaction from Beijing, which has labeled the politician and her 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”.
