According to the island’s defence ministry, the drills showed the military’s ability to maintain air and naval combat strength against a full-scale PLA attack.

Nine F-16 fighter jets roared across the sky over the eastern county of Hualien at around 6.30am soon after the island’s Hengshan joint operations command centre announced the start of the drills.

The F-16s were ordered to cover various other warplanes, including Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets which flew from their bases in western Taiwan to shelter at the Chiashan base in Hualien and the Chihhang base in nearby Taitung county.

“This was to allow the main backbones of the air force’s fighter jets in the west side of Taiwan to be able to preserve their combat readiness in eastern Taiwan,” a ministry official said.

Western Taiwan is directly across the strait from the Chinese mainland and more vulnerable to attack from the PLA. In an attack, the island could send some of its warplanes and warships to the east to stage counter-attacks later.

02:28

‘Preparing for war’: China revises military recruitment rules for the first time since 2001

‘Preparing for war’: China revises military recruitment rules for the first time since 2001

Also on the first day, various warships left their homeports for designated locations where they prepared to strike the enemy forces. Naval mines were deployed in waters close to the island to hamper naval and amphibious attacks from the PLA.

Meanwhile, residents in northern Taiwan were put through their paces in an air raid drill to test their readiness to deal with warplane and missile attacks from the PLA, the ministry said.

Beijing views Taiwan as its territory that must be brought under its control, by force if necessary. Like most countries, the United States – Taiwan’s biggest informal ally and arms supplier – does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but is opposed to any unilateral change of the cross-strait status quo by force.

The cross-strait rivalry has increased since Tsai Ing-wen of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party was elected the island’s president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle.

The PLA staged unprecedented live-fire drills to blockade Taiwan soon after then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August last year, and again in April after Tsai met Pelosi’s successor, Kevin McCarthy, in the US. Beijing sees such official contacts as a violation of its sovereignty.

Taiwanese analysts said the island’s military had increased the intensity of the war games this year, wary of the rising possibility of a conflict.

“Some of the exercises this year are in response to the two large-scale live-fire drills held by the PLA in August and April,” said Lin Ying-yu, a professor of international relations and strategic studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei City.

Lin said this included preparation to ward off a second strike by the PLA in eastern Taiwan, where Beijing’s Shandong aircraft carrier conducted a mega drill in April.

In addition, Taiwan was testing its ability to repel amphibious assaults at three locations where the PLA would most possibly land, Lin said.

Su Tzu-yun, a senior analyst at the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, said that compared with previous drills, this year’s Han Kuang Exercise – held since 1984 – was more comprehensive.

“This is the first time the military has included the Taoyuan International Airport in the drills, obviously taking into account the possibility of a PLA occupation of Taiwan’s main transport hub,” he said.

The anti-airborne drill will take place at the airport on Wednesday for about two hours.

Su said that in another first, the air force would also temporarily convert Fenglien airport in Taitung into an airbase for emergency take-off and landing of its warplanes to improve its ability to deter PLA assaults from the east coast.