China practices blockades on last scheduled day of Taiwan drills

TAIPEI – China’s military carried out aerial and naval blockade drills around Taiwan on Monday, its last scheduled day of exercises, with a Chinese aircraft carrier joining in combat patrols as Taipei reported another surge of warplanes near the island.

China announced the three days of drills on Saturday, after Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen returned to Taipei following a meeting in Los Angeles with U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under Beijing’s control. Taiwan’s government strongly disputes China’s claims and has denounced the drills.

Chinese state television said aircraft, including nuclear-capable H-6 bombers armed with live missiles, and warships staged drills to “form a multi-directional island-encompassing blockade situation.”

“In the Taiwan Strait, the northwest and southwest of Taiwan and the waters east of Taiwan (Chinese forces) took the initiative to attack, giving full play to their performance advantages, flexibly maneuvering to seize favorable positions, and advancing at high speed to deter opponents,” the report said.

The Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said the aircraft carrier the Shandong also took part in combat patrols, and showed fighters taking off from its deck.

Taiwan has been tracking the Shandong since last week in the Pacific Ocean.

Taiwan’s defence ministry published a map on Monday of the previous 24 hours of Chinese air force activities, showing four carrier-based Chinese J-15 fighters operating over the Pacific Ocean to Taiwan’s east.

The ministry said that as of mid-morning on Monday that it had spotted 59 military aircraft and 11 ships around Taiwan, and that the Shandong carrier group was drilling in the Western Pacific.