Chinese People’s Liberation army starts drills in water areas near Taiwan

BEIJING, August 2. /ST/. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has started drills in three water areas around Taiwan on the backdrop of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island, China’s Central Television reported on Tuesday.

“The PLA Eastern Theater Command is conducting a series of joint military operations around Taiwan,” it said, adding that naval and airborne drills are conducted north, southwest and southeast of Taiwan.

The drills were announced after a plane with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed at Taipei airport on Tuesday.

Pelosi’s visit It is the first visit by such a high-ranking US official to the island in the past 25 years. Beijing has repeatedly warned the US side that such a move would not be left unanswered and that tough measures would be taken.

Earlier, it was reported that that at least 21 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Tuesday on the backdrop of US House Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the operation involved eight J-11 fighter jets, ten J-16 jets, a KJ-500 airborne warning and control system aircraft, and two Y-9 and Y-8 planes. They flew over the waters southwest of the island, with some of them approaching the so-called median line in the Taiwan Strait.

An air defense identification zone is an airspace beyond a country’s territory, where a country requires identification of aircraft. This concept however is not fixed in international law. Such zones are set by concrete countries or regions and not always coincide with their borders. Taiwan’s unilaterally proclaimed air defense identification zone stretches over an area of 492,000 square kilometers and exceeds the island’s airspace, covering waters around it, the Taiwan Strait and part of the airspace over three mainland China’s provinces.

Chinese warplanes have been regularly entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone during drills. This year’s biggest such operation was conducted on January 23 when 39 planes entered this zone.

Compiled by: Basma Qaddour