China holds large naval, air force exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands

This handout from China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command released on October 14, 2024, shows a map of locations of the “Joint Sword-2024B” military drills being conducted by China around Taiwan.
| Photo Credit: AFP/ China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command

China held large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands on Monday (October 14, 2024) in what it called a warning against Taiwan independence.

China’s Defense Ministry said the drills were a response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s refusal to concede to Beijing’s demands that Taiwan acknowledge itself as a part of the People’s Republic of China under the rule of the Communist Party.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry called the drills a provocation and said its forces were prepared to respond.

The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command spokesperson, Navy Senior Captain Li Xi, said the navy, army air force, and missile corps were all mobilized for the drills.

“This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan’s independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty,” Mr. Li said in a statement on the service’s public media channel.

Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II. It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists swept to power on the mainland.

Mr. Lai took office in May 2024, continuing the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China’s demand that it recognize Taiwan is a part of China. China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a “dead end” and that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability.