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One analyst said that the Liaoning aircraft carrier may take part in the exercises. Photo: Reuters

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.

In Taiwan’s ministry of national defence said on Monday that the show of military muscle and Beijing’s threat of using force against Taiwan has jeopardised regional security and stability.

It also said that the island’s military was constantly monitoring the situation and pledged to defend its sovereignty.

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Observers expect PLA forces from the Southern and Eastern Commands – whose area of responsibility includes Zhejiang and Fujian, which lie opposite Taiwan – to take part in the exercises.

This is the first war game to involve simultaneous exercises at two locations in the waters near Taiwan since the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, during which the PLA conducted a series of large-scale live-fire exercises in response to then Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui’s visit to the US and ahead of the Taiwanese presidential election.

Song Zhongping, a military commentator based in Hong Kong, said: “The main goal of the drills is to practise how to effectively maintain control of the sea and the air amid growing foreign interference in Taiwan affairs…and serve as a warning to foreign forces that the PLA has the resolve to [achieve reunification] with Taiwan,” Song said.

Lu Li-Shih, a former instructor at the naval academy in Taiwan, said the passage of the Hulun Lake, one of the PLA’s new Type 901 fast combat support ships, and other warships through the Miyako Strait in the East China Sea on Thursday suggested that the Liaoning, China’s only fully operational aircraft carrier, may also take part in the exercises.

The latest drills follow the publication of China’s latest defence white paper, in which the PLA warned against a growing challenge from pro-independence forces in Taiwan and said it would always defeat those fighting for the island’s independence.

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Tensions are also rising with Washington over its support for the self-ruled island, and Beijing has recently accused the US of undermining global stability and denounced the sale of US$2 billion of military hardware to the island, which the Pentagon said would help Taiwan “maintain a credible defensive capability”.

Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary, making it one of the top potential flashpoints in the region.

In a move that also fuelled tensions in the region, the US military confirmed a day after the white paper that it had sent the USS Antietam to the Taiwan Strait as part of its “commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific”, Commander Clay Doss, a spokesman for the Seventh Fleet, said in a statement on Thursday.

Lu said that while the latest show of military muscle could be Beijing’s answer to US support for Taiwan, the PLA would also seek to test and improve cooperation between different command theatres during the exercises.

“It is responding to the [US] arms sales to Taiwan as well as the [US Navy’s] regular transit through Taiwan Strait,” he said. “China is also seeking to improve the coordination and cooperation between the military theatres after the PLA’s overhaul [in 2015].”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: PLA stages simultaneous drills near Taiwan Strait
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