TAIPEI (TAIWAN), April 2: China conducted military drills around Taiwan for a second day Wednesday focusing on the Taiwan Strait separating the self-governing island democracy from China that is a crucial conduit for international trade.
The Strait Thunder-2025A drills were held Wednesday morning in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) spokesperson said.
Taiwan’s military said it was closely monitoring the drills but there was nothing unusual on the island of 23 million people that China claims as its own territory.
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Wednesday’s exercises “focus on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention so as to test the troops’ capabilities of area regulation and control, joint blockade and control, and precision strikes on key targets.” Eastern Theatre Command spokesperson Shi Yi was quoted as saying on the Chinese Defence Ministry’s Weibo social media account.
Taiwan on Wednesday reported 76 military aircraft, and 19 naval or government ships had entered waters and airspace near the island over the past 24 hours, with 37 of the planes crossing the centre line in the 160-kilometre wide Taiwan Strait that forms an unofficial border, but which China refuses to acknowledge.
China’s Shandong aircraft carrier group also entered into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, a self-defined area tracked by the military.
Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a daily basis, and in recent years it has stepped up the scope and scale of these exercises. Taiwanese officials have recently warned that China could launch a sneak attack under the guise of military exercises.
Any conflict could draw in the US which maintains a series of alliances in the region, provides Taiwan with high-tech arms and is legally bound to respond to threats to the island.
“Once again, China’s aggressive military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region’s security and the world’s prosperity at risk,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
“In the face of China’s intimidation tactics and destabilising behaviour, the United States’ enduring commitment to our allies and partners, including Taiwan, continues,” Bruce said in a statement.
Taiwan has set up a central response group to monitor the latest exercises, according to Taiwan’s defence minister Wellington Koo.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the exercises were directed at Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s strongly pro-independence president. Polling shows the overwhelming majority of the island’s residents reject the possibility of Chinese rule and back their current state of Taiwan independence.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war 76 years ago, but tensions have risen since 2016, when China cut off almost all contacts with Taipei. (AP)
