Tsai met McCarthy during her transit stop on Wednesday – the first time a sitting Taiwanese president and the speaker of the US House of Representatives have met on US territory since Washington broke official ties with Taipei in 1979 and recognised Beijing as the sole government of China.
As the exercise got under way on Saturday, command spokesman Shi Yi said the drills were necessary to safeguard territorial integrity and were a warning against “joint provocations by Taiwan secessionist forces and foreign forces”.
03:10
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, despite Beijing’s warnings
US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy meets Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, despite Beijing’s warnings
Taiwan’s defence ministry said PLA planes made 70 sorties near the Taiwan Strait in the 10 hours until 4pm on Sunday. Those aircraft included Su-30 and J-16 fighter jets, H-6 bombers, YY-20 tankers, and KJ-500 early-warning and control planes.
Thirty-five of those flights crossed the strait’s median line, or entered the southwestern or southeastern part of Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ), the ministry said.
The self-declared air defence zone includes and extends beyond Taiwanese airspace. While the PLA sends planes into Taiwan’s ADIZ nearly every day, only some sorties cross the median line in the strait that marks the halfway point between mainland China and Taiwan.
For decades, both sides largely abided by the tacit understanding that neither side would send armed forces across the median line, but in 2020 Beijing said it did not recognise it.
US urges ‘restraint’ as China launches Taiwan military drills
PLA warships also made 11 trips around the Taiwan Strait by 4pm, the ministry said.
The island’s armed forces deployed planes, ships and land-based missile systems to closely monitor and respond to PLA activities, while “not escalating conflict and not causing dispute”.
The ministry also called on Taiwanese people to be aware of misinformation as a tool of psychological warfare.
As the military drills continued, the ministry’s news agency reported that the island’s air force was training with its Skyguard short-range air defence system, which includes a 35mm anti-aircraft gun, radar and RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile launcher.
“In the face of enemies, the missile force is using the Patriot missile system’s excellent anti-missile capability to strengthen air defences and respond to unexpected situations,” the agency reported.
The American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy on the island, said the United States was monitoring the PLA drills closely and was “comfortable and confident” that it had the ability and resources to ensure peace and stability, Reuters reported.
The PLA aircraft carrier Shandong, which passed through the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines on an exercise last week, was also part of the Joint Sword drills, Senior Captain Tang Li of the PLA Naval Research Institute told a CCTV programme on Saturday.
“The Shandong carrier group is a strategic platform of our navy … and its voyage to the western Pacific outside the [first] island chain shows that our far-sea combat system is strengthening dramatically and is a stern warning to Taiwanese independence forces,” she said.
Tang also said the PLA exercises aimed to test the ability of new warships, drones and planes to gain control of airspace and the sea.
“The footage of the exercise shows that the deployment aims to create a superior and overwhelming posture on the battlefield against Taiwan,” she said.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51ku6bD0miaoaGelnyutcuiq5qqqWSus8DInKOeZ2NnfneAlWpmnKCZo7K0sYymoKWhpJa%2FunnLmqynm5iawG6%2FyKaspZmkmrFuvNGemqKrmaS7br%2FTq6CknaNiwaK11pqlZqKfnru1edKhmKuoXajEsL7DZpuroZyhwG6xza2cq2WUlsZufg%3D%3D