Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Monday it had tracked down 13 PLA Navy ships and 39 aircraft on Monday
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Monday it had tracked down 13 PLA Navy ships and 39 aircraft on Monday
A day after the conclusion of an unprecedented live-fire exercise that effectively blocked water and skies in six areas around Taiwan, China’s military began new exercises and training activities, which analysts said were the military in the Taiwan Strait. There’s a new normal in attendance.
On Monday, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, which conducted a four-day live-firing exercise from Thursday to Sunday, said in a brief statement that it continued to conduct “realistic combat-oriented joint exercises and training” in the waters. The airspace around Taiwan is “focusing on organizing joint anti-submarine and maritime attack operations”. It did not say when the new exercise would end.
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Chinese analysts told state media that the continuation of the exercises was intended to indicate such exercises taking place east of the midline in the Taiwan Strait and closer to Taiwan would become regular and a new normal.
In the wake of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit on August 3, the Chinese military exercise, which began a day later, saw a large number of aircraft and warships cross the middle of the Taiwan Strait for the first time.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on Monday that it had tracked 13 PLA Navy ships and 39 aircraft on Monday, of which 21 had again crossed the median.
communist party-run Global Times This week’s new drills added “further exercise to regain control of the seas with anti-submarine drills”.
“Monday’s exercise means the PLA has increased its exercise around the island of Taiwan, which was originally scheduled to end on Sunday afternoon,” the newspaper quoted military analyst Song Zhongping as saying. This type of exercise will not stop.”
The continuation of the practice on Monday was shocking. While maritime authorities issued a notice last week announcing the location of the six restricted areas as of Sunday, no such notice was published this weekend. Analysts speculated that the latest exercise would not involve live-firing or missile launches that would disrupt shipping and aviation, as the four-day exercise did.
Last week’s exercises simulated an attack and an effective blockade around the island of Taiwan, and included the firing of conventional missiles at the island, which was in the waters to its east.
Taiwan has criticized the exercise as a provocation that has undermined peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits, while Beijing has justified the moves as a response to Ms Pelosi’s visit from the US to Taiwan in 25 years. This is the highest level of all time, which he saw as a violation of the “One China Policy”.