TAIPEI (Dispatches) -- About 20
Chinese and Taiwanese navy boats held close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday morning, a source briefed on the matter told Reuters.
The source said some Chinese boats briefly attempted to “press” into the unofficial buffer, while Taiwan’s navy monitored the movements, in a continuation of similar maneuvering near the median line separating China and Taiwan since Aug. 1.
Several Chinese navy boats also conducted missions off Taiwan’s eastern coasts on Tuesday, the source familiar with the security planning in the region said.
Taiwan held an artillery drill Tuesday simulating defense against an attack as its top diplomat accused Beijing of preparing to invade the island after days of massive Chinese war games.
China launched its largest-ever air and sea exercises around Taiwan last week in a furious response to a visit by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the highest-ranking American official to visit the self-ruled island in decades.
China views Taiwan as part of Chinese territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary.
The Chinese military said its Taiwan drills continued Tuesday and involved air and sea units.
The Eastern Theater command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a statement that it was conducting training exercises around the island, “focusing on joint blockade and joint support operations”.
Taipei’s drill in the southern county of Pingtung included the firing of target flares and artillery, lasting just under an hour, said Lou Woei-jye, spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps.
Soldiers fired from howitzers tucked into the coast, hidden from view of the road that leads to popular beach destination Kenting.
The drills, which will also take place Thursday, included the deployment of hundreds of troops and about 40 howitzers, the army said.
Tuesday’s exercise attracted a crowd of onlookers.
The island routinely stages military drills simulating defense against a Chinese invasion.
But the latest drill prompted an ominous warning from Beijing, which regularly unleashes fiery rhetoric against Taiwan’s independence hopes.
“Any conspiracy to go against the trend of history and resist reunification through arms... will end in failure like a mantis trying to stop a chariot,” foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a regular briefing Tuesday.