TAIPEI — China deployed fighter jets and warships to encircle Taiwan on Monday, in drills Beijing said were aimed at sending a “stern warning” to “separatist” forces on the self-ruled island.
Beijing has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control and Monday’s drills represent its fourth round of large-scale war games in the past two years.
The United States said China’s actions were “unwarranted” and risk “escalation” as it called on Beijing to act with restraint.
Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, has been more outspoken than his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen in defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, angering Beijing, which calls him a “separatist”.
Lai vowed Monday to “protect democratic Taiwan, and safeguard national security”, while the defence ministry said it dispatched “appropriate forces” in response to the drills.
AFP journalists near the Hsinchu air force base, in the north of Taiwan, saw 12 fighter jets take off on Monday.
Outlying islands administered by Taipei were on “heightened alert” and “aircraft and ships will respond to enemy situations in accordance with the engagement rules”, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.
Beijing said its exercises served as a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.
The drills, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, are testing troops’ “joint operations capabilities” according to Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command.
They are taking place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island,” he said.
The drills are “focusing on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas”, Li said.
They also practised an “assault on maritime and ground targets”.
Fighter jets and warships had been deployed, Chinese state media said.
China’s coast guard was also dispatched to conduct “inspections” around the island.
A diagram released by the coast guard showed four fleets encircling Taiwan and moving in an anticlockwise direction around the island.
The coast guard of the eastern province of Fujian — the closest area on the mainland to the self-ruled island — also said it was conducting “comprehensive law enforcement patrols” in waters near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands.
Taiwan said four “formations” of China coast guard ships were patrolling around the island, but they had not entered its prohibited or restricted waters.
China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent years, sending in warplanes and other military aircraft while its ships maintain a near-constant presence around the island’s waters.
“In the face of enemy threats, all officers and soldiers of the country are in full readiness,” Taiwan’s defence ministry said Monday.
