The Chinese Army’s Eastern Operations Command began combined military maneuvers around Taiwan on Saturday in response to President Tsai Ing Wen’s meeting this week with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in what Beijing saw as an affront to its sovereignty claims over the territory.
Throughout this weekend and until next Monday, all branches of the Chinese Army will carry out artillery exercises, naval and air deployments and missile launching drills that will »encircle the island of Taiwan from four directions», according to the spokesman of the Eastern Command, Colonel Shi Yi, explained to the Chinese state newspaper ‘Global Times’.
The spokesman confirmed that these exercises are intended to send a »stern message» against »secessionist forces claiming Taiwan independence and their »collusion with external forces» in a »necessary move to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity».
These drills practically amount to a dress rehearsal of a blockade on the island; a scenario designed to prevent both the deployment of Taiwanese forces and external interference, according to military expert Song Zhongping, consulted by the same media.
OPERATIONS IN TWO PHASES The military exercises that began on Saturday are divided into two phases. The first consists of the deployment of patrols on combat alert, such as those that have been flying over the Taiwan Strait for months and which often briefly cross the so-called »Davis line» that divides the strait in two and is considered the beginning of Taiwan’s security zone.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry, in this regard, has detected this Saturday at least 42 fighter jets and eight warships, and conformed that 29 of these aircraft entered its air defense space in the northern, central and southern part of the island.
The second part of the drill consists of the development of the aforementioned joint exercises, in which fighter jets and warships »will surround the island while executing drills oriented to real combat», according to other military experts, this time under condition of anonymity, to the Chinese newspaper.
The exercises will culminate on Monday with a live-fire drill off the coast of Pingtan, China’s Fujian province and just 130 kilometers from Taiwan, under a special military drill alert declared by the East China Maritime Safety Administration.
Moreover, although the combined exercises will end on Monday, the agency has issued additional live-fire drill alerts through April 20 off the coast of Fuzhou, about 90 kilometers north of Pingtan.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
