China launches three-day military drill around Taiwan

Kathmandu: China has launched a three-day military drill around Taiwan amid anger in Beijing over the meeting between US House Speaker and Taiwan’s president in California.

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command announced the military exercises on Saturday, describing them as ‘a serious warning against the Taiwan separatist forces’ collusion with external forces, and a necessary move to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.’

The exercises, dubbed ‘United Sharp Sword’, would feature ‘combat ready patrols and exercises in and around the Taiwan Strait, and to the north, south and east of Taiwan and the sea and airspace as planned,’ Senior Colonel Shi Yi of the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command said in a statement on Saturday.

The drills would focus on the country’s ‘capabilities to seize control of sea, air and information under the support of our joint combat system,’ said the PLA.

Soon after the announcement by China, Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had detected a total of 42 Chinese warplanes over the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from the Chinese mainland. It said 29 Chinese warplanes had crossed the median line in the strait into its air defense identification zone.

It added that eight PLA vessels had been spotted in the strait.

The drills come a day after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a 10-day visit to Central America and the United States where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.