China said it would carry out live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, two days after US and Canadian warships sailed through the contentious waterway following Beijing’s massive military exercise a week ago.
The live-fire drills are to take place in a limited area in the waters near Niushan Island from 9am to 1pm local time, the official Fujian Daily reported, citing a notice from the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) on Pingtan, an island off the coast of Fujian province in southeastern China.
Sitting east of Pingtan Island, Niushan Island is only 165 kilometres (102 miles) from Taipei, the capital city of Taiwan.
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It is also the closest point between mainland China and the main island of Taiwan, hosting China’s largest lighthouse in the region.
Ships would be prohibited from entering the area, the notice added.
Tuesday’s drills would come only two days after the USS Higgins, an Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, and HMCS Vancouver, a Halifax-class frigate, made transit through the strait on Sunday, a move Beijing denounced as “disturbing the situation and undermining peace and stability” in the region.
Liu Xi, the spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army, said the PLA was “on high alert” and would “resolutely defend national sovereignty and security and regional peace and stability”.
The US Pacific Command said on Sunday that the ships conducted a “routine Taiwan Strait transit through waters where high-seas freedom of navigation and overflight apply in accordance with international law”.
Beijing regards Taiwan, a self-ruled island, as part of China, to be eventually united with the mainland, by force if necessary.
The US, like most countries, does not recognise the island as independent, but is opposed to any attempt to reunify the island by force and has remained Taiwan’s staunchest backer and top arms supplier.
Cross-strait tensions have been significantly heightened in recent weeks after Beijing conducted blockade drills around the self-ruled island.
Those exercises, code-named Joint Sword-2024B, followed a speech by the island’s leader William Lai Ching-te on October 10 to commemorate the founding of the Republic of China in 1912.
In the speech, Lai said that Beijing “has no authority” to represent Taiwan and that the two sides “are not subordinate to each other”.
This quickly drew criticisms from Beijing, which accused Lai of “provoking hostility and confrontation”.
Four days later, the PLA carried out Joint Sword-2024B in what it called “a warning against ‘separatist acts’”.
The one-day drill, which involved its navy, air force, rocket force and coastguard, drew concerned calls for restraint from the United States, Japan, Britain and European Union.
More from South China Morning Post:
- Beijing’s military says US-Canada Taiwan Strait transit ‘undermines peace and stability’
- Beijing could soon elaborate Anti-Secession Law for ‘non-peaceful’ Taiwan reunification
- US urges restraint from mainland China and Taiwan ahead of island leader’s speech
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