ALBAWABA - China’s military is practicing ship-launched strikes on Taiwan from the east, according to information released by Taiwan’s defense ministry on Monday, as Beijing’s retaliatory mock war entered its last day.
The escalation follows a stopover by Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen in the United States last week. Tsai met with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles, defying stern Chinese warnings of punitive actions against the island it considers part of mainland China.
BREAKING ? China says planes ‘carrying live ammunition’ conducted ‘simulated strikes’ near Taiwan
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) April 10, 2023
READ: https://t.co/x7C2Whzgbp pic.twitter.com/hPhKYMPuRD
The defense ministry did not give the positions of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) ships it had detected, but a map of PLA aircraft detections show four J-15 fighter jets east of Taiwan, in the western Pacific, on Saturday.
Chinese ships cut Taiwanese undersea communication cables, according to tweets and other posts on social media platforms.
Chinese ships cut Taiwanese undersea communication cables #China #Taiwan pic.twitter.com/qr8kPMyINf
— Spotlight on China (@spotlightoncn) April 10, 2023
The J-15s have never been seen before inside Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), according to the Guardian. It said they are known to be launched from two PLA aircraft carriers, including the Shandong, which had been tracked by Taiwan and Japan sailing past Taiwan into waters to its southeast late last week.
70 PLA aircraft and 11 vessels were detected by 16:00(UTC+8) April 9th. 35 of the detected aircraft had crossed northern, central, and southern median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered our southwest ADIZ. pic.twitter.com/PitgcyfjPI
— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. ?? (@MoNDefense) April 9, 2023
China Ministry of National Defense tweeted that the air defense units of the Chinese Armed Forces "remain on high alert for contingencies, steadfastly maintaining their posts 24/7." It insisted that its position underlines that "we can and we will defend our skies."
"And, we will never give up our beliefs," it added in a tweet.
Air defense units of #ROCArmedForces remain on high alert for contingencies, steadfastly maintaining their posts 24/7, showing that we can and we will defend our skies. And we will never give up our beliefs. pic.twitter.com/cLXbVrcblE
— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, R.O.C. ?? (@MoNDefense) April 10, 2023
On Saturday, Beijing launched three days of mock war games targeting Taiwan in response to President Tsai meeting with McCarthy last week.
The drills have not matched the scale of those launched in retaliation to a Taipei visit by McCarthy’s predecessor, Nancy Pelosi, which included missile launches, according to the Guardian.
But it added, quoting unnamed observers as saying the drills "do appear to show an escalation in the Chinese military’s training for strikes on Taiwan."
