Practice China called it a “parasite” on Tuesday after China’s rhetoric to Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, and followed a visit from U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to Asia, repeatedly criticized Beijing.
China regards democratically managed Taiwan as its own territory and has later condemned Lai as a “separatist”. Lai, who won the election last year and took office, rejected Beijing’s sovereignty claims and said only the people of Taiwan can decide their future.
The China Eastern Theater Command said the exercise was conducted in the central and southern Taiwan Strait. Some of Taiwan’s remote islands are only a few kilometers away from China.
“The focus of the exercise is to identify and verify, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention topics in order to test the forces’ regional regulatory and control capabilities, joint lockdowns and controls, and precise strikes to key objectives,” it said in a statement.
Taiwan’s security officials told Reuters that there were more than 10 Chinese warships in Taiwan’s “response zone” on Wednesday morning and the Chinese Coast Guard was participating in the “harassment” exercise. China has not officially named Tuesday’s drill. Last year, China called two rounds of war around United Sword-2024a and United Sword-2024B on the island. The United States, Taiwan’s most important international supporter and major arms supplier, condemned the exercise despite lack of formal diplomatic ties.
“Again, China’s active military activities and speech towards Taiwan will only increase tensions and put security and world prosperity in the region at risk,” the State Department said in a statement.
Japan and the EU also expressed concern.
An EU spokesman said: “The EU has maintained direct interest in the status quo in the Taiwan Strait. We oppose any unilateral action to change the status quo through force or coercion.”
