Highlights
- On Monday, China had stepped up its unprecedented military drills around Taiwan
- China staged fresh exercises and extended the schedule of its war games launched
- Four drills by the PLA involved all wings of the Chinese armed forces including the missile forces
China Taiwan news: Taiwan on Tuesday (local time) began live-fire artillery drills in defence against China's attack, news agency ANI reported today, quoting AFP.
This comes a day after China had stepped up its unprecedented military drills around Taiwan, staging fresh exercises and extending the schedule of its war games launched.
This was done in retaliation to the visit by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to Taipei by attempting to strangle the self-ruled island.
The Chinese military exercises kicked off after Pelosi angered Beijing by visiting Taipei last week to show her support for democracy on the island which China views as a rebel province that must be reunified with the mainland, even by force.
On August 8, the Eastern Theatre Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) continued to carry out joint combat training exercises in the waters and airspace around Taiwan island, mainly focusing on the joint anti-submarine and air-to-sea assault operations, the defence ministry here said in a brief announcement.
The four drills involved all wings of the Chinese armed forces including the missile forces, aircraft carrier group besides hundreds of warplanes conducted the drills all around the island venting Beijing’s anger over Pelosi's visit, which China says has changed the status quo of Taiwan as part of Chinese mainland under 'one-China' policy.
Chinese Defence Ministry Spokesperson Senior Colonel Wu Qian said the current tensions across the Taiwan Strait has been a result of provocative acts single-handedly created by the US, for which it must hold accountable and bear full responsibility for the serious consequences of it.
China urges the US side to earnestly respect its core interests and major concerns, abandon any illusion of “containing China with Taiwan”, and not go even further down the wrong path, he said.
On Monday Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said 13 PLA naval vessels and 39 aircraft were detected in Taiwan’s surrounding region.
The Taiwan armed forces monitored the situation and responded to these activities with aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems, the ministry tweeted.
Twenty-one of the Chinese aircraft had flown on the east part of the median line of the Taiwan Strait dividing China and Taiwan and the Air Identification Defence Zone, (ADIZ) it said.
It is not clear when China plans to end the provocative drills.
(With inputs from PTI)
