Beijing: As they encircled the island on Sunday during the second day of military drills in response to Taiwan's president meeting with the speaker of the US House, Chinese fighter jets and warships mimicked strikes on Taiwan.
Washington said it was "closely monitoring Beijing's actions" and called for restraint in response to the exercises, which were denounced by Taipei. The People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command announced that "Joint Sword," a three-day operation that includes practising an encirclement of Taiwan, will last until Monday.
If I said I wasn't a little concerned, I'd be lying to you, said 73-year-old Donald Ho as he worked out in a Taipei park on Sunday.
According to him, both sides would suffer a great deal in a war, so he continued to be concerned.
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The army announced the war games, which were designed to show off Beijing's military might, and said they involved sending aircraft, ships, and personnel into "the maritime areas and air space" surrounding Taiwan on all four sides.
According to a report on state television station CCTV on Sunday, exercises had "simulated joint precision strikes against key targets on Taiwan island and surrounding waters," and forces had "continued to maintain the situation of closely encircling the island."
The report also stated that ground forces had practised "multi-target precision strikes" and that the air force had sent out dozens of aircraft to "fly into the target airspace."
After meeting US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week outside of Los Angeles on her way home from a visit with two allied countries in Central America, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen immediately denounced the drills. As a response to "continued authoritarian expansionism," she promised to cooperate with "the US and other like-minded nations."
The Pentagon also said it was "monitoring events closely," while a spokesperson for the State Department in Washington claimed that the United States had "consistently urged restraint and no change to the status quo."
In reference to Tsai's stop in California, a Defense Department spokesperson said on Sunday, "There is no reason for Beijing to turn this transit — which was consistent with long-standing US practise and policy — into something it is not or use it as pretext to overreact."
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Despite decades of arms sales to Taipei to support its self-defense, the US has purposefully avoided saying whether it would defend Taiwan militarily.
Live-fire drills will be part of the exercises on Monday off the rocky coast of China's Fujian province, which is 190 kilometres (80 miles) south of Taipei and about 50 kilometres (80 miles) south of Taiwan's Matsu Islands.
According to Shi Yin, a PLA spokesman, "These operations serve as a stern warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking "Taiwan independence" and external forces, as well as against their provocative activities.
The live-ammunition exercises will begin on Monday on the Chinese island of Pingtan, which is across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan. AFP did not observe any immediate signs of increased military activity there.
Lin Ren was selling coffee out of the back of his car while playing the Chinese national anthem continuously on a roadside verge high above the ocean. The 29-year-old told AFP, "I think the current exercises serve as a way of putting pressure on Taiwan.
They make it clear to them, in my opinion, that we are able to unite.
China has promised to annex Taiwan one day, possibly using force, because it sees the island as a democratic, independent part of its territory.
The defence ministry in Taipei reported on Sunday that it had spotted 11 Chinese warships and 70 aircraft in the area. According to data maintained by AFP, 45 aircraft crossed the median line separating Taiwan from mainland China on Saturday, making it the year's most incursions.
According to the ministry, 150 Chinese ships or aircraft, including fighter jets, drones, bombers, and transport aircraft, were discovered over the course of the weekend.
The island has been on high alert, promising that its troops "will be well prepared and maintain solid combat readiness" while taking care not to "escalate conflict."
Sunday at the Hsinchu air force base in northern Taiwan, an AFP journalist witnessed Mirage 2000 fighter jets taking off and landing.
An AFP journalist reported seeing three boats from Taiwan's elite Amphibious Reconnaissance and Patrol Unit patrolling the Matsu Islands on Sunday.
Taiwan's defence ministry reported on Sunday that "the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has continued to conduct military drills around the Taiwan Strait and since this morning it has successively dispatched multiple batches of aircraft... as well as a number of ships in the area."
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The exercises took place hours after French President Emmanuel Macron, who was in China to urge his counterpart Xi Jinping to assist in putting an end to the war in Ukraine, left Beijing.
Following a visit to the island by McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, in August of last year, China conducted its largest display of force in years, deploying warships, missiles, and fighter jets all around Taiwan.
Tsai visited her island's dwindling number of official diplomatic allies in Latin America on Friday. During her two stops in the US, she had meetings with McCarthy and other lawmakers.
