China continues military drills near Taiwan
The Chinese military is continuing military drills in the western Pacific through waters south of Taiwan.
Chinese warships engaged in offensive and defensive exercises to assess their capabilities on Friday.
During the drills, J-15 fighter jets took off from the country’s aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, for maneuvers in the area to the east of the Bashi Channel, which runs between Taiwan and the Philippines, the PLA daily , the official newspaper of the People’s Liberation Army reported on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Taiwan, considered by Beijing as Chinese territory, accused China of “saber rattling.” It conducted its own live-fire drills on Tuesday on two Taiwanese islands close to China.
Chinese bombers on Thursday flew around Taiwan in what China’s air force described as a “sacred mission,” prompting Taipei’s China policy-making Mainland Affairs Council to state that the naval and aerial maneuvers amounted to “military intimidation.”
Chinese naval forces also conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait on Wednesday.
The maneuvers by China come at a time of tensions between Beijing and Taipei and follow a strong warning by Chinese President Xi Jinping last month against any separatist drive by Taiwan.
Xi presided over the navy’s largest-ever military display earlier this month in the South China Sea, where 76 fighter jets and a flotilla of 48 warships and submarines exercised.
Taiwan remains one of the most sensitive issues in China and a potential flashpoint.
Beijing says the self-ruled island is under Chinese sovereignty, and except for a limited number states, world countries recognize that sovereignty.
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