BEIJING: China’s military carried out a second day of war games around Taiwan on Friday, with drills to test its ability to “seize power” and control key areas in exercises Beijing has said were launched to punish Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te.

The two days of drills around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast, which a Taiwanese official said included the mock bombing of foreign vessels, started just three days after Lai took office.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and denounces Lai as a “separatist”. It criticised his inauguration speech on Monday, in which he said Taipei was not subordinate to Beijing.

The eastern theatre command of the Peoples Liberation Army said in a brief statement that its forces on Friday continued with their drills, dubbed “Joint Sword - 2024A”.

The exercises are to “test the ability to jointly seize power, launch joint attacks and occupy key areas”, it said. China has never ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

A senior Taiwan security official said several Chinese bombers conducted mock attacks on foreign vessels near the eastern end of the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines, practising how to seize “total control” of areas west of the “first island chain”.

The chain refers to the area that runs from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China’s coastal seas.

The official said several Chinese coast guard boats also conducted “harassment” drills off Taiwan’s east coast, including mock inspections of civilian ships.

China’s Coast Guard said in a brief statement that it had conducted “law enforcement drills” in waters east of Taiwan on Friday, focused on training in verification and identification, warning and repulsion.

The Chinese theatre command showed an animated video on its WeChat social media account of missiles being launched at Taiwan from the ground, air and sea, which then slam into the cities of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Hualien in balls of flame.

“Sacred weapons to kill independence,” read words in red, written in the traditional Chinese characters Taiwan uses, at the end of the animation.

Taiwan’s armed forces have mobilised to monitor and shadow Chinese forces. Taiwan’s defence ministry published pictures of F-16s, armed with live missiles, patrolling the skies on Friday.

It also showed pictures of Chinese coast guard vessels, which are taking part in the drills, and Chinese Jiangdao-class corvettes, though it did not say exactly where the images were taken.

According to one official, 49 Chinese military aircraft, 19 Navy and seven Coast Guard ships are taking part in the exercise. The closest Chinese aircraft got to Taiwan’s coast was 40 nautical miles (74 km) from the island’s northern tip.

Lai Ching-te, the new Taiwanese president, has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed.

Taiwanese media have covered the drills, but also given a lot of time to ongoing drama about contested parliament reforms that have brought thousands of people onto the streets to protest.

On China’s highly regulated Weibo social media site, “Eastern Theatre” was the top searched item, with most of the comments supporting the drills. Another hot topic was “the return of Taiwan”.

Published in Dawn, May 25th, 2024