Mainland China launches military drill near Taiwan in ‘severe warning to separatist forces’, US responds
- People’s Liberation Army stages joint exercise by air force and navy near the island in response to ‘engagement with foreign forces and provocations’
- It comes a day after Taiwanese presidential candidate William Lai returns from Paraguay trip, during which he stopped in US, provoking Beijing’s ire
The PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command launched joint exercises by its air force and navy around the island to review its combat capability, it said in a statement on Saturday.
“It is a severe warning to Taiwan separatists for their collusion with foreign forces and provocations,” it said.
Command spokesman Shi Yi described the drills, conducted off the north and southwest sides of the island, as exercises to “seize maritime and airspace control”.
They included submarine search and anti-submarine operations to “test the capability of the command’s forces in coordinated operations and systematic confrontation.”
China’s Central Television also aired a video clip of the drills. It said that the exercise had involved destroyers, corvettes, missile boats, fighter jets, air warning systems and rocket forces in a simulated encirclement of the island.