BEIJING: China has declared the successful completion of three days of war games around Taiwan, which saw dozens of aircraft simulated strikes and an aerial blockade of the self-ruled island.
The drills were held in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week, which Beijing had warned would provoke a strong response.
The war games involved targeted strikes on Taiwan, the encirclement of the island, and an “aerial blockade.” One of two Chinese aircraft carriers, the Shandong, also participated in the exercise.
The US Navy sent the USS Milius guided-missile destroyer through contested parts of the South China Sea in response, triggering condemnation from China, which accused the vessel of illegally intruding into its territorial waters.
Beijing warned on Monday that Taiwanese independence and cross-strait peace were “mutually exclusive” and blamed Taipei and unnamed “foreign forces” for the tensions.
Taiwan and China split at the end of a civil war in 1949. China considers democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has maintained to take it one day.
The United States (US) has been deliberately ambiguous on whether it would defend Taiwan militarily but has sold weapons to Taipei to help ensure its self-defense and offered political support.
Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy outside Los Angeles on her way home from a visit with two allied countries in Central America was viewed as a compromise that would ensure support for the island but avoid inflaming tensions with Beijing.
China warns against US support for Taiwan
But China had repeatedly warned against any such meeting and began the latest war games soon after Tsai returned to Taiwan.
The exercises “comprehensively tested the integrated joint combat ability of multiple military branches under actual combat conditions,” said the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Command in a statement.
On Beigan island, part of Taiwan’s Matsu archipelago island that is within sight of China’s mainland, 60-year-old chef Lin Ke-Qiang said he did not want war.
“We, common people, only want to live peaceful and stable lives,” Lin said, adding that Taiwan’s military was no match for China’s.
“If any war happens, now that their ammunitions and missiles are so advanced, there’s no way our side could resist. This site will be levelled to the ground.”
