China said on Monday it had deployed fighter jets carrying “live ammunition” and the aircraft carrier Shandong to carry out “simulated strikes” against targets in Taiwan after encircling the territory with dozens of planes and warships.
“Several groups of H-6K fighters with live ammunition carried out various simulated attacks against key targets on the island of Taiwan,” the People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command said, noting that Shandong also “participated in the exercises ”.
The Chinese army sent dozens of fighter jets and 11 warships near Taiwan, after the meeting between the island’s leader, Tsai Ing-wen, and the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry reported this morning.
The Chinese military previously announced “combat readiness patrols” over a three-day period in a warning to Taiwan. The decision to send planes and warships close to the territory came after the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy in California.
This weekend, Tsai met with a US congressional delegation after returning to Taipei.
China responded to the meeting between Tsai and McCarthy with increased military activity and travel bans and sanctions against entities and individuals associated with Tsai’s trip to the United States.
Between Sunday and Monday, 70 planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial border that was once tacitly respected by both sides, according to a statement from Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. Among the planes that crossed the airspace were eight J-16 fighters, four J-1 fighters, eight Su-30 fighters and reconnaissance planes.
This occurred after eight warships and 71 Chinese aircraft were detected near Taiwan between Friday and Saturday, according to the island’s Defense Ministry.
The ministry said in a statement that it was approaching the situation from a perspective of “not escalating conflicts and not causing disputes.”
Taiwan said it was monitoring Chinese movements through ground-based missile systems and navy ships.
In addition to combat readiness patrols, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army will conduct live-fire exercises in Luoyuan Bay in east China’s Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, the Maritime Authority announced there. at the end of the week.
In recent years, raids by Chinese Air Force aircraft into Taiwanese airspace have intensified, and after the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives live fired
Pelosi’s visit was the highest-profile US visit in 25 years.
At the end of World War II, Taiwan became part of the Republic of China under Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government. After the defeat against the Communist Party, in the Chinese Civil War, in 1949, the Nationalist Government took refuge on the island, which maintains, to this day, the official name of the Republic of China, in opposition to the People’s Republic of China, the Chinese mainland.
Beijing considers the island part of its territory and threatens reunification by force if Taipei formally declares its independence.
Source: TSF
