Chinese military starts Taiwan Strait drills amid rising tension with US over island
- PLA exercise off self-ruled island began on Sunday with second set of drills to be held further to the south
- Analysts suggest first simultaneous operations in region since 1995-96 Taiwan Strait crisis may be a response to Washington’s US$2 billion arms sale to island
The People’s Liberation Army has started two large-scale military drills close to the Taiwan Strait, according to a notice from local maritime safety administration.
The exercises take place amid rising tensions between Beijing and Washington over the self-ruled island, including America’s recent sale of US$2 billion hardware to Taipei.
Ships were prohibited from entering the waters off the coast of eastern China’s Zhejiang province between 6pm on Saturday and 6pm on Thursday due to planned military exercises, Zhejiang Maritime Safety Administration said in a brief notice on Sunday.
In another notice, Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration said another set of military exercises would be held in the waters off Fujian province between Monday morning and Friday evening.
No further information on which units are involved or the purposes of the exercises were given, but observers said they were part of a “routine drill on the southeast coast” that the defence ministry announced two weeks ago.