In a statement on Monday, Japan’s Joint Staff said it had observed the Shandong and several other Chinese naval vessels south of Miyako island since Friday. Japan said it had scrambled jets in recent days as a result of the drills. Taiwan’s government has condemned the exercises while the US has urged China to show restraint. They were intended to rehearse an encirclement and blockade of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its territory and has threatened to take by force if necessary. The exercises called Joint Sword kicked off on Saturday. “Multiple batches of H-6K fighters carrying live ammunition … carried out multiple waves of simulated strikes on important targets on Taiwan island,” the Eastern Theater Command said. The ministry said 35 of the detected aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone.Ĭhinese fighter jets carried out “simulated strikes” near the self-governed island during the exercises, which included the Shandong aircraft carrier, the Chinese military said on Monday. Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 70 Chinese military aircraft and 11 vessels around Taiwan. It said its forces monitored the exercises and aircraft, navy vessels and land-based missile systems were tasked with responding to them. Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, said China’s military will stand ready at all times to defeat any form of “Taiwan independence” and foreign interference. The exercise “comprehensively tested the integrated joint combat ability of multiple military branches under actual combat conditions”, the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Command said in a statement. The war games simulated strikes on Taiwan and encirclement of the island, and a state media report said dozens of planes had practised an “aerial blockade”. “If we want to protect peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, we must firmly oppose any form of Taiwan independence separatism,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a briefing on Monday. China has warned that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and independence for Taiwan are “mutually exclusive” as it has concluded three days of live-fire drills near the self-governed island in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s recent trip to the United States.
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