The Chinese Army will extend during this day the military maneuvers that it carried out between last Thursday and this Sunday around Taiwan in response to the visit to the island of the president of the US Legislature, Nancy Pelosi.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced on the Weibo social network – Chinese equivalent to Twitter, censored in the Asian country – that it continues “carrying out joint practical exercises in the air and sea space around the island of Taiwan.”
The maneuvers that Beijing has carried out in recent days, with live fire and the launch of long-range missiles, have been described by the Taiwanese government as “irresponsible”, in addition to raising numerous signs of concern within the international community. .
Monday’s exercises will focus on anti-submarine operations and air strikes with target vessels, the statement added.
However, the authorities have not specified the location of these additional maneuvers or whether they maintain the six zones in which they were carried out in recent days, one of them located just 20 kilometers from Kaohsiung, the main city in southern China. the island.
On Sunday, which should have been the last day of maneuvers although Beijing never officially confirmed its end, the exercises focused on “testing joint fire capabilities for ground attacks and long-range air attacks”, actions that Taiwan denounced and continued ” closely” with its armed forces.
The first four days of maneuvers were extended to the six aforementioned areas around the island, in which air and sea spaces were closed, and included live fire and the launch of long-range missiles, some of which fell into offshore waters. Japan provoking an official protest from the Japanese Government.
The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense denounced in those days that numerous Chinese military ships and planes had crossed the middle line of the Strait of Formosa, which in practice is an unofficial border but until now tacitly respected by Taipei and Beijing.
In reaction to China’s moves and in order to test its “combat readiness,” the self-ruled island has announced that it will hold military exercises tomorrow, Tuesday, and next Thursday in Pingtung County, including live artillery fire, according to the official Taiwanese agency CNA.
China, which described Pelosi’s visit as a “farce” and “deplorable betrayal”, claims sovereignty over Taiwan, an island it considers a rebellious province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949, after losing the civil war against China. the communists.