On Sunday, Pelosi’s office announced she had set out on her anticipated trip to Asia, with stops in Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. There was no mention of a visit to Taiwan, but the carefully worded statement did not rule out that possibility either.

“The possibility of Pelosi visiting Taiwan shows the stand-off between Beijing and Washington has escalated, which demands that the PLA push forward with military reforms to become a real modern fighting force,” Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, said.

What US-China row over Pelosi and Taiwan means for Asian region

Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province under its one-China principle, to be reunited by force if necessary, and warns the world against any official interaction with it.

Most countries, including the US, do not recognise the self-governed island as a sovereign state. Washington acknowledges the one-China principle but is against any attempt to take the island by force.

Last week, the PLA for the first time described Pelosi’s likely trip as a move to support “Taiwan independence”, in violation of the one-China principle, and warned that the Chinese military would not “turn a blind eye” to it.

03:13

Xi warns Biden that US ‘playing with fire’ as tensions soar over Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visit

Xi warns Biden that US ‘playing with fire’ as tensions soar over Pelosi’s proposed Taiwan visit

Also included was the launch of a projectile that looked like the DF-17 hypersonic boost-glide missile, seen in action for the first time.

The DF-17, which has a range up to 2,500km (1,550 miles), made its public debut on October 1, 2019, during a National Day parade in Beijing celebrating the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

“The deployment of DF-17 missiles to the Eastern Theatre Command is not aimed at Taiwan, but rather targets the US military and all foreign forces intending to intervene in the Taiwan issue,” Song said.

It is not clear when the DF-17 launch took place.

In August 2020, the PLA’s Rocket Force launched its DF-21D and DF-26B missiles, dubbed “aircraft carrier killers”, a day after Beijing claimed an American spy plane had entered a no-fly zone during a Chinese live-fire naval drill in the Bohai Sea.

The DF-26B took off from the northwestern Chinese province of Qinghai, and the DF-21D from eastern Zhejiang province, both hitting a moving target vessel in the South China Sea.

The PLA has also upgraded and extended all airbases and missile launch sites along the southeastern coast of mainland China facing the Taiwan Strait, interpreted by defence observers as stepped-up preparations to take back Taiwan by force.

01:19

Chinese navy practises aerial combat as it prepares its newest aircraft carrier for operations

Chinese navy practises aerial combat as it prepares its newest aircraft carrier for operations

“[The PLA] needs to grab the opportunity for ‘Taiwan reunification’ as soon as possible,” Ni Lexiong, military analyst at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said.

“The sense of crisis has emerged since the US imposed sanctions to limit the transfer of chip technology targeting the Chinese semiconductor industry, which will definitely affect the country’s long-term military technology development, as well as the PLA’s military modernisation.”

PLA Daily on Monday published a 2017 address by Chinese President Xi Jinping marking the force’s 90th anniversary.

Xi, who also chairs the Central Military Commission, had reiterated then that the PLA should spare no effort to become a world-class, modern military machine on a par with Western counterparts like the US.