"Necessary warning" to the USA: China surprisingly continues maneuvers in front of Taiwan

The Chinese army's maneuvers were supposed to end on Sunday after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.

"Necessary warning" to the USA: China surprisingly continues maneuvers in front of Taiwan

The Chinese army's maneuvers were supposed to end on Sunday after Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. But also on Monday there are combat exercises in the strait between the mainland and the island.

Despite the announcement that Chinese maneuvers around Taiwan were due to end on Sunday, the People's Liberation Army has continued with exercises. As reported by China's state television, the air and sea combat exercises in the Taiwan Straits Straits focused on "joint operations against submarines and attack at sea".

When the maneuvers were announced last Tuesday, China had originally promised a conclusion on Sunday. So far, however, no formal end has been announced. Rather, some Chinese commentators have suggested that the military exercises are taking place regularly and could become a new normal.

Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian described the maneuvers as a "necessary warning" to the United States and Taiwan. It was an "appropriate" reaction to their "provocations". The tensions were "deliberately" created by the United States, with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi traveling to Taipei against opposition from Beijing.

The Chinese leadership rejects such official contacts from other countries to Taipei because it sees the island as part of the People's Republic. On the other hand, Taiwan has long considered itself independent; the country was never part of the People's Republic. With the maneuvers, the People's Liberation Army practiced not only a sea and air blockade, but also a possible conquest of the island.

Taiwan's military reported that Chinese planes flew 66 sorties on Sunday alone. 22 planes crossed the unofficial, but hitherto most respected, center line of the Taiwan Strait. 14 warships also took part in the maneuvers in the strait. China's armed forces followed the movements closely and also issued warnings over the radio.

A Chinese drone was again spotted on Sunday evening over the offshore Taiwanese island of Kinmen (Quemoy), which is only two kilometers from the Chinese coast, the Ministry of Defense in Taipei reported. There had been no Chinese overflight of the island since the 1950s. Other maneuvers are also planned this week in other sea areas in the north in the Bohai Gulf and Yellow Sea and south in the South China Sea off the coast of Guangdong province.

Beijing launched the maneuvers in response to Pelosi's visit to Taipei. It is China's largest show of military power since the "missile crisis" in the mid-1990s, when the United States sent two aircraft carriers. As a further response, China suspended dialogue with the US on climate protection and through several military channels. Cooperations such as in the fight against crime, drugs and the repatriation of people who have entered the country illegally have been canceled entirely. In addition, Beijing imposed unspecified sanctions on Pelosi.