China launches live-fire exercise in Taiwan Strait

BEIJING – China’s military began a live-fire exercise near Taiwan on Oct 22, maintaining pressure on the self-ruled island after staging large-scale drills and President Xi Jinping calling the troops to prepare for war.

China’s Communist Party has never ruled the island, but it claims Taiwan as part of its territory and

has said it will not renounce the use of force

to bring it under its control.

Earlier in October, it sent planes and warships around the island in what Beijing said was a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.

On Oct 21, the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) in the eastern island of Pingtan announced that “gun firing” would take place in a limited area close to the Chinese mainland, about 105km from Taiwan.

The MSA said it would start at 9am local time and take place for four hours in an area encompassing about 150 sq km.

Pingtan is the closest point in mainland China to Taiwan’s main island.

Maritime authorities did not say which Chinese force would carry out the live firing, or its objective.

In response to the drills, Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said it was closely monitoring China’s “military activities and intentions”.

Taipei said the exercises could be part of Beijing’s “tactics to bolster its intimidation in conjunction with the dynamics in the Taiwan Strait”.

Premier Cho Jung-tai described them as a “threat that undermines regional peace and stability”.

Passing ships

Over the weekend, a US and a Canadian warship passed through the 180-kilometre Taiwan Strait, part of regular passages by Washington and its allies meant to reinforce its status as an international waterway.

Beijing condemned the passage as disrupting “peace and stability” in the strait.

China sent a record number of military aircraft as well as warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan on October 14 in the fourth round of major drills in just over two years in the area.

Taiwan deployed forces and put outlying islands on heightened alert in response to the exercises.

Beijing has ramped up military pressure on Taipei in recent years, deploying on a near-daily basis warplanes and other military aircraft as well as ships around the island.

Following its “Joint Sword-2024B” exercises, its army vowed never to renounce the use of force to retake the island.

In a visit to a brigade of the Chinese military’s Rocket Force in the wake of those drills, President Xi urged them to strengthen their preparedness for war, state media said. AFP