China conducts military maneuvers to simulate Taiwan's naval blockade
Taiwan declared on Tuesday that China had deployed 71 aircraft and 21 warships during large-scale military drills around the self-governed island.
Image of the Chinese maneuvers handed out by the Taiwan government.
The Chinese military carried out new maneuvers around Taiwan on Tuesday, involving naval, air, and rocket forces to simulate a blockade of the democratically governed island.
The military called the exercises a "firm warning and forceful deterrent" to suspected separatists in Taiwan, a territory Beijing claims as its own.
Taiwan's government, which has its own military, deployed its own aircraft and warships and activated the ground-based missile defense system.
Taiwan said Tuesday that China had deployed 71 aircraft and 21 warships during large-scale military maneuvers around the self-ruled island.
The number of warships included the Shandong aircraft carrier group, the Defense Ministry said at a press briefing.
Taiwan island maritime blockade
"These maneuvers mainly focus on sea and air combat readiness patrols, the joint seizure of general superiority, and the blockade of key areas and sea lanes," said Col. Shi Yi, spokesman for the Chinese military's Eastern Theater Command.
In a subsequent statement, China's Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian warned that the island's independence "means war, and to pursue 'Taiwan independence' is to push the Taiwanese people into a dangerous war situation."
For their part, the Chinese Coast Guard indicated in a communiqué that they carried out "patrols in waters around the island of Taiwan", where they carried out tasks against ships whose presence is "unjustified."
According to the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense, China sent the Shandong aircraft carrier group and other ships and aircraft as part of the maneuver.
The Taiwanese agency said it had detected a total of 21 Chinese military vessels and is "closely monitoring the movement of the Chinese Shandong aircraft carrier group and other aircraft and vessels that entered the Taiwanese response zone."
In the drills, Chinese armed forces "approach the island of Taiwan from multiple directions," Shi said, describing the maneuver as "a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China's sovereignty and national unity."
Taiwan independence is "doomed to failure"
"The (Taiwan) authorities' stubborn persistence in their independence stance and their futile attempt to divide the country from the outside by seeking independence is like a mantis trying to stop a chariot: it is doomed to failure," diplomatic spokesman Guo Jiakun said.
"Hostile foreign force"
Beijing insists Taiwan is part of its territory and in recent years has increased the movement of fighter jets and military vessels around the island to enforce its sovereignty claim, which Taipei rejects.
Tensions between the two territories separated by the 180-km-wide Taiwan Strait escalated with the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in May 2024.
Lai maintains a stronger stance in favor of Taiwan sovereignty than his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, with whom Beijing already had significant friction.
Last month, the Taiwanese president referred to China as "a hostile foreign force" and proposed measures to fight espionage and infiltration from Beijing.
The maneuvers are the most significant since February, when Taipei accused Beijing of conducting "live-fire" combat exercises some 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers) south of the island.
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