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China has begun military exercises and large -scale coastal guards around Taiwan, the last round in the Beijing escalating campaign to assert its claims of sovereignty and suppress the efforts of the island nation to maintain its independence de facto.
Training on Tuesday came while Taiwan President Lai Ching seeks to improve military and civil willingness for a possible Chinese attack and strengthen society to protect against espionage and other infiltration from China, which he called a “hostile foreign force” last month.
The people’s liberation army said that naval, air, land and missile forces were practicing “the capture of inclusive control, strikes on sea and land targets and blockade operations”.
China’s Coast Guard also announced the “law enforcement patrols” at the same time, which he said would exercise inspection, tapping and banning “unreasonable ships”.
PLA sends aircraft and ships to the airspace and waters near Taiwan almost daily, and routinely holds what it calls patrols of combat readiness.
She has also held several rounder training rounds near Taiwan since Lai took office last May, the last in mid -March, as Beijing intensifies a scare campaign she has been building for several years.
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said that 71 Chinese military aircraft operated around the island between 7.20 am and 3.30pm on Tuesday, 36 of which crossed the average line of Taiwan Strait. The ministry recorded the presence of 13 Chinese warships during the same period.
The Taiwanese army responded with a workout of premature readiness, only the second time it has done so out of its annual training schedule.
The carrier of Chinese Shandong aircraft on Monday entered the Taiwanese Army response area, a self-declared area that extends beyond its territorial waters and airspace, where the armed forces monitor and shade foreign military movements.
Two people informed about the situation said Shandong on Tuesday was approaching 24 nautical waters off the coast of Taiwan, the closest ever to the Taiwanese continent.
China’s coastal keeper called its exercises “concrete actions to exercise lawful jurisdiction and control over the island in accordance with the one-Kina principle”. She published a map showing that at least three flotillas operated around Taiwan, but Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said that only four Chinese coastal vessels were present in the vicinity.
Since late Tuesday morning, there was no indication that every Chinese coastal guard had tapped, riding, inspecting or banning any ship in the area.
But its movements will be closely viewed as any Chinese intervention in trade in the Taiwan Strait or the east of the island could raise the fear of demolition in one of the most loaded transport lanes in the world, through which most East Asia exports and completed goods are transported to Europe.
The elderly colonel Shi Yi, a spokesman for the Eastern PLA Theater command, who is responsible for operations around Taiwan, called the exercises a “severe and strong warning against the separatist forces of ‘Taiwan’s independence’.”
Lai has taken steps in recent months to strengthen Taiwan’s defense’s stance, holding the country’s most serious civil protection mobilization exercises for decades and announcing plans to restore military trials in time to oppose Chinese infiltration and impact operations.
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense said China’s escalation of military activity in the region was “challenging international order and regional stability”, adding that Beijing was becoming the biggest “problem” in the eyes of the international community “.
The American Institute in Taiwan, the US Embassy de facto in the country, said that Washington will “continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informative and diplomatic pressure campaign”.
The US is the only country that actively supports Taiwan’s security, though President Donald Trump has accused Taipei of freeing on the US defense umbrella and the “stealing” of the US semiconductor sector.
“Once again, China has shown that it is not a responsible actor and has no problem endangering the region’s security and prosperity,” the institute said in a statement. “There is no excuse for China’s irresponsible threats and military pressure operations near Taiwan.”
