China staging live-fire drills around Taiwan for third day

Beijing’s show of force comes in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent visit to the United States.

China is set to carry out a third day of live-fire drills near Taiwan in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s high-profile trip to the United States.

Chinese fighter planes and warships carried out simulated strikes on the self-governing island over the weekend, sparking protests by Taipei.

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence said on Monday it had detected 70 Chinese military aircraft and 11 vessels around Taiwan.

“R.O.C. Armed Forces have monitored the situation and tasked CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond [to] these activities,” the ministry said in a statement posted on social media, referring to Taiwan’s official name of the Republic of China.

The ministry said 35 of the detected aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the territory’s air defense identification zone.

The three-day operation dubbed “Joint Sword” is intended to rehearse an encirclement of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory. China’s state broadcaster CCTV on Sunday said the exercises focused on “key targets on Taiwan island and surrounding waters”.

The drills on Monday are expected to include live-fire exercises off of China’s Fujian province, located only about 80km (50 miles) south of Taiwan’s Matsu islands.

Tsai’s meeting last week with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California prompted a furious response from Beijing, which has branded the politician and her nationalist Democratic Progressive Party separatists.

Taiwan, a parliamentary democracy whose contested status stems from the outcome of the 1927-1949 Chinese civil war, is governed separately from mainland China but is officially recognised by just a handful of countries.

The US does not officially recognise Taiwan but has expressed opposition to unilateral attempts to change the status quo and has for decades supported the island’s defences with weapons sales.

The US State Department said on Sunday it was monitoring the situation closely and Beijing should not turn Tsai’s visit “into something it is not or use it as a pretext to overreact”.