CHINA has deployed a swarm of fighter jets and warships to encircle Taiwan in a “stern warning” to the island.
Beijing vowed “we are prepared for battle” as it launched a new round of war games around Taiwan on Monday – sealing off key ports as warplanes took to the skies.
China said the latest drills were a warning shot to Taiwan’s “separatist” forces – and the president’s refusal to acknowledge the island as part of China.
State TV aired a chilling map showing nine areas around the island where drills are taking place – with Taiwan tracking 25 warplanes, seven warships and four Chinese government ships so far.
Beijing also deployed its Liaoning aircraft carrier – with nighttime footage showing a J-15 fighter jet taking off from the decks.
China views Taiwan as its own territory – and has not ruled out force to bring it under its control.
Xi Jinping’s military has increased its encircling of Taiwan’s skies and waters in the past few years – holding joint drills with its warships and fighter jets on a near-daily basis near the island.
Taiwan blasted the latest exercises as “irrational and provocative” and dispatched “appropriate forces” in response – scrambling fighter jets armed with missiles.
The Joint Sword-2024B drills are taking place in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan, China’s Eastern Theatre Command said.
It said the war games “serve as a stern warning to the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces”.
And it claimed they were “a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity”.
China’s military published a map of the drills – two on the island’s east coast, three on the west coast, one to the north and three around Taiwan-controlled islands next to the Chinese coast.
Ships and aircraft are approaching Taiwan in “close proximity from different directions”, it said.
They are focusing on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, blockading key ports and areas, and attacking maritime and ground targets.
China’s Navy Senior Captain Li Xi said the navy, army air force, missile corps have all been mobilised.
“This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty,” he said.
The US slammed China’s actions as “unwarranted” – and said they risk “escalation”.
And Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has deployed warships to designated spots in the ocean for surveillance – and “stand ready”.
It also deployed its mobile missile and radar groups on land to track the vessels.
The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its National Day.
In a defiant speech, Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said China has no right to represent the island – and vowed to resist annexation or invasion.
After the speech, China warned that Lai’s “provocations” would result in “disaster” for the people of Taiwan.
In a propaganda video, China showed a cartoon caricature of Lai with pointed ears like a devil and fighter jets and warships around the island.
The footage ends with an image of a fist turning into hammer – and a sword pointed at Taiwan.
China’s state broadcaster CCTV warned: “The greater the provocation, the tighter the reins.”
And fiercely nationalistic newspaper Global Times said on X: “There is only one China in the world!”
The PLA’s Liberation Army Daily newspaper also declared: “Those who play with fire get burned!”
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said “all officers and soldiers of the country are in full readiness” in the “face of enemy threats”.
Taiwan’s presidential office said China should face up to the fact of the existence of the Republic of China – Taiwan’s formal name – and respect Taiwan’s choice.
It should “refrain from military provocations that would disrupt the status quo of peace and stability in the region, and threaten Taiwan’s democratic freedoms,” the office said.
In Washington, US President Joe Biden is monitoring the drills – and there was no justification for them after Lai’s “routine” speech.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said: “We call on the PRC to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region.”
China’s foreign ministry hit back on said on Monday: “Taiwan is a part of China, and the Taiwan issue is China’s internal affair that brooks no foreign interference.”
The last war games took place in May when dozens of warplanes filled the skies above Taiwan.
The drills continued for more than 24 hours with 27 warships and 62 warplanes blockading the island.
China also held massive military exercises around Taiwan and simulated a blockade in 2022, after a visit to the island by Nancy Pelosi, who was then speaker of the US House.
China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a dead end and that annexation by Beijing is a “historical inevitability”.
TAIWAN insists it is an independent nation after splitting from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.
But China claims Taiwan remains a part of its territory with which it must eventually be reunified – and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island and place it under Beijing’s control.
The island, which is roughly 100 miles from the coast of south-east China, sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
Taiwan sits in the so-called “first island chain”, which includes a list of US-friendly territories that are crucial to Washington’s foreign policy in the region.
This also puts it in an ideal situation to slow a Chinese attack on the West.
And with tensions between the two nations high, Taiwan is likely to aid China’s enemy if it means keeping its independence.
Taiwan’s economy is another factor in China’s desperation to reclaim the land.
If China takes the island, it could be freer to project power in the western Pacific and rival the US, thanks to much of the world’s electronics being made in Taiwan.
This would allow Beijing to have control over an industry that drives the global economy.
China insists that its intentions are peaceful, but President Xi Jinping has also used threats towards the small island nation.
