On the second day of exercises, the Chinese army simulates attacks on Taiwan

Military exercises in the organization China eye Taiwan entered their second day today, in which the Chinese military “carried out simulated attacks on key targets on the island and in the surrounding waters.”

State broadcaster CCTV reported that the People’s Liberation Army (PLA, China’s military) “continued its pressure around the island” as part of exercises that will last until Monday, according to Efe.

The PLA’s eastern theater of operations ordered “dozens” of strikes by “early warning, reconnaissance, attack, bombing and jamming aircraft,” the channel reported. PLA troops “took up attack positions” through “high-speed maneuvers.” Likewise, the Xuzhou frigate “conducted tactical operations” in waters east of Taiwan, the channel reported, which showed images of China’s naval and air forces in action.

Journalist Hu Xijin explained in a local newspaper last night Global Times that the maneuvers are “an explosion in the hearts and guts of Taiwanese separatists,” while he accused the United States of “increasing arms sales and military aid” to the self-ruled island.

China announced the military drills on Saturday in response to a meeting in California on Wednesday between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. A military spokesman defined the maneuvers as a “serious warning” against “provocations by separatist forces” and a “necessary action to protect China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Taiwan called the moves “an irrational act that threatens regional security and stability.”

The situation is reminiscent of the one experienced last August, when the visit to Taiwan by then Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi angered Beijing, which responded with military maneuvers around the island to a trip it described as a “farce” … and a “deplorable betrayal”.

Beijing has considered Taiwan a renegade province since the Kuomintang nationalists retreated there in 1949 after losing a civil war to the Communist army. The island is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the United States, mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of a war with China.