China starts drills in Taiwan Strait amid tensions with Japan
Hong Kong: China’s military on Monday dispatched air, navy and rocket troops to conduct joint military drills around the island of Taiwan, a move Beijing called a “stern warning” against separatist and “external interference” forces. Taiwan said it was placing its forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.”
Later in the day, Taiwan’s aviation authority said more than 100,000 international air travellers would be affected by flight cancellations or diversions because of the drills.
The first of two days of drills came after Beijing expressed anger at US arms sales to the territory and a statement by Japan’s prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that the world’s second-biggest economy says must come under its rule.
The drills in the “middle areas” of the Taiwan Strait amid rising diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan that Beijing claims as its territory.
“The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command is employing fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles in coordination with long-range rocket fires to conduct drills in the waters and airspace in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait on Monday,” state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
Focusing on striking mobile ground targets, the drills intend to test the troops’ capabilities of precision strikes on key targets, it said.
China claims the self-governing Taiwan as part of its mainland and vows to integrate it. The drills in which fighters, bombers, long range rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles will be used comes in the backdrop of the US approval of a record USD 11.1 billion arms package to Taipei which China sharply criticised and diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan. US President Donald Trump approved an arms package worth USD 11.1 billion for Taiwan, which, if cleared by the US Congress, would mark Washington’s largest-ever arms sale to the island.
