China sent 71 warplanes near Taiwan on Saturday as the country kicked off three days of military drills and “combat readiness patrols” around the self-ruled island, just days after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen incurred Beijing’s wrath for meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, which oversees operations in the East China Sea including the Taiwan Strait, said in a short statement that the “Joint Sword” drills and combat patrols were being held in the waters and airspace to the north, south and east of Taiwan and would conclude on Monday.
“This is a serious warning against the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces’ collusion and provocation with external forces, and it is a necessary action to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Eastern Theater spokesman Senior Col. Shi Yi said.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said later in the day that it had detected 71 Chinese aircraft and nine naval vessels around the island as of 4 p.m. It said 45 of the warplanes had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, a division designed to keep military aircraft from both sides at a safe distance in order to prevent miscalculations from erupting into conflict.
The 71 Chinese sorties near Taiwan was one of the most in a single day since Taiwan began releasing daily tallies in 2020.
A later report from China’s state-run CCTV showed apparent footage of the drills, adding that the Chinese military would “simultaneously organize patrols and advances around Taiwan island, shaping an all-round encirclement and deterrence posture.”
Another report by the state-run Global Times also said that the army, navy, air force and rocket force were all involved in the drills. It went on to detail the type of weaponry being deployed, including “long-range rocket artilleries, naval destroyers, missile boats, air force fighters, bombers, electronic warfare aircraft and aerial tankers, as well as conventional missiles.”
Separately, media reports said live-fire drills had begun Saturday off the coast of China’s Fujian province, across the Taiwan Strait. On Friday, the Fujian Maritime Safety Administration said live fire exercises would also take place Monday in the area near Pingtan county, about 130 kilometers from the Taiwanese city of Hsinchu. Live-fire drills would continue in the area on April 11, 13, 15, 17 and 20.
Tsai returned to Taiwan on Friday after capping a visit to two of the country’s dwindling number of allies with a transit through California, where she held a historic meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, the No. 3 official in the American government.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry criticized the latest military exercises as a threat to “regional peace, stability and security,” adding that China had “used President Tsai’s visit to the United States as an excuse to conduct the military exercises.”
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the use of force in taking the island, has denounced Tsai’s meeting with McCarthy as “collusion” between Washington and Taipei and had vowed to take “resolute and effective measures” in response.
Upon her return to Taiwan, Tsai said that her trip had shown the world that Taiwan would not bow “in the face of pressure and threats” and that the island would “absolutely not yield to suppression” and attempts to stop exchanges with the international community.
“Taiwan’s determination to safeguard freedom and democracy has been supported by our democratic partners, and it has also strengthened our friendship with our democratic partners,” she added.
Last August, China conducted days of large-scale military exercises around Taiwan after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the democratic island. Those exercises included the launch of five ballistic missiles that landed inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone, near its far-flung Nansei Islands, for the first time.
Although the first day of the exercises Saturday did not appear as large as the drills held after Pelosi’s visit, the soaring tensions in the Taiwan Strait have prompted concern in the region and beyond.
Tokyo has watched the area with trepidation, with senior officials fearing the eruption of conflict there would also constitute an emergency for Japan. Okinawa Prefecture’s Yonaguni Island sits just about 110 kilometers from Taiwan, and growing concerns over a possible war have helped Tokyo push through a dramatic shift in security policy and boost in defense spending.
The fresh military exercises also come on the heels of a flurry of diplomacy by Beijing. French President Emmanuel Macron left China on Friday after talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, while European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who joined the two for a trilateral meeting Thursday, also departed the country Friday after concluding a separate visit.
They also came after former Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou on Friday wrapped up a 12-day goodwill visit to the mainland — the first by a former Taiwanese leader.
Ma, who was president from 2008-2016 as head of the Kuomintang government, slammed the Democratic Progressive Party government led by Tsai, saying it “continues to lead Taiwan to danger.”
“The future is a choice between peace and war,” he said before departing China.
Ma’s party, which is currently in the process of deciding on a candidate to take on the DPP in next year’s presidential election, favors closer ties with China.
