China confirms military drills near Taiwan, amid growing fears of invasion

China‘s armed forces carried out fresh drills near Taiwan last week, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced early on Monday after the island reported increased military activity.

Providing specifics, the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command issued a statement clarifying that the military carried out drills in the east and southwest of Taiwan from from Friday to Sunday.

The exercises, which reportedly involved bombers, fighters and anti-submarine aircraft, were carried out to “further test and improve the joint combat capability of multiple services and arms,” the Eastern Theatre Command statement added.

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The statement corresponds with reports from Taiwan’s air force, which on Friday scrambled to warn off 18 Chinese aircraft from the island’s air defence identification zone or ADIZ, and reported further Chinese incursions on Saturday and Sunday.

Taiwan’s defence ministry confirmed that no shots had been fired between the two sides, adding that Chinese aircraft did not enter Taiwanese airspace, but restricted their activity to the ADIZ, which the island monitors to give itself greater time to respond to military threats.

The Chinese drills near the Taiwan is the latest military activity to take place near the island, which, for the past two years, has been complaining about increased Chinese military presence in the southern and southwestern part.

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China appears to have stepped up military activities in the Asia-Pacific region as a whole, too, with Japan reporting the passage of Chinese naval vessels, including an aircraft carrier, through the Okinawa chain of islands last week.

Given the deteriorating situation in the region, Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu on Saturday urged the international community to react to any future Chinese invasion with the same intensity and unity with which the community has responded to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

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“In the future, if we are threatened with force by China, or are invaded, of course we hope the international community can understand and support Taiwan, and sanction these kinds of aggressive behaviours,” Wu said.

With Beijing, which maintains that Taiwan is an “inalienable” part of the mainland, yet to renounce the use of military force to bring the island under control, the Taiwan Strait is a potentially dangerous military flashpoint that could flare in the near future.

Despite China’s advances and military posturing, however, Taiwan holds that its 23 million inhabitants are separate from the mainland and have a right to self-determination.