BEIJING - China has finished three days of military drills around Taiwan, which included “sealing off” the island and simulating targeted strikes. Taiwan said it had detected jets to its east, while China said its Shandong aircraft carrier had taken part.
Beijing began the exercises on Saturday after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen met the US House Speaker in California. After the drills ended, Taiwan’s defence ministry said it would not stop strengthening its combat preparedness. The drills have not been as big as those that followed Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last August. Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state. China sees it as a breakaway province that will eventually be brought under Beijing’s control - by force, if necessary. On Monday, China said its drills had ended successfully. Taiwan’s defence ministry said it detected 12 Chinese warships and 91 aircraft around the island on Monday. “Although [China’s] Eastern Theatre Command has announced the end of its exercise, the [Taiwanese] military will never relax its efforts to strengthen its combat readiness,” the defence ministry said in a statement.
A map of flight paths released by Taiwan’s defence ministry showed four J-15 fighter jets to the island’s east - suggesting that the Chinese military is for the first time simulating strikes from the east, rather than the west where China’s mainland lies. Analysts said it was likely the jets had come from China’s Shandong aircraft carrier - one of two such carriers it possesses - which is currently deployed in the western Pacific ocean, about 320km (200 miles) from Taiwan.
The Chinese military confirmed on Monday in a statement that the Shandong had “participated” in Monday’s exercises. It said fighter planes loaded with live ammunition had “carried out multiple waves of simulated strikes on important targets”. Japan’s defence ministry said on Monday that the Shandong had also conducted air operations in the preceding days. Jet fighters and helicopters took off and landed on the carrier 120 times between Friday and Sunday, the Japanese ministry said. Russian government spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an audio post on Telegram that China had the “right to respond” to what he said were “provocative actions” against it.