China's military on Monday dispatched air, navy and rocket troops to conduct joint military drills around the island of Taiwan, a move Beijing called a “stern warning” against separatist and “external interference” forces. Taiwan said it was placing its forces on alert and called the Chinese government “the biggest destroyer of peace.”
Later in the day, Taiwan's aviation authority said more than 100,000 international air travellers would be affected by flight cancellations or diversions because of the drills.
The first of two days of drills came after Beijing expressed anger at US arms sales to the territory and a statement by Japan's prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, saying its military could get involved if China were to take action against Taiwan, the self-governing island that the world's second-biggest economy says must come under its rule. The Chinese military did not mention the United States and Japan in its statement on Monday morning.
The drills in which fighters, bombers, long range rockets and unmanned aerial vehicles will be used comes in the backdrop of the US approval of a record USD 11.1 billion arms package to Taipei which China sharply criticised and diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan.
US President Donald Trump approved an arms package worth USD 11.1 billion for Taiwan, which, if cleared by the US Congress, would mark Washington's largest-ever arms sale to the island.
The arms sale aids Taiwan's independence forces' plans to turn the island into a powder keg, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun told a media briefing here on December 18, reacting to Trump's approval to the arms sale.
"China will take resolute and strong measures to defend its national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity," he said.
The arms sales to Taiwan comes in the backdrop of rising China-Japan tensions over Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks in parliament on November 7 that a Taiwan contingency could be a "survival-threatening situation" for Japan that may lead to action from the country's defence forces in support of the US.
Her remarks angered China, which demanded Takaichi to retract her statement.
China has also criticised Japan's move to develop the easternmost island of Okinawa for the deployment of a mobile surveillance radar unit to monitor Chinese aircraft carriers and airplanes.
The Japanese side kept strengthening targeted military deployment near Taiwan region and even claimed it will deploy mid-range missiles, he said.
This time, it went even further by deploying a radar unit and troops to secretly monitor its neighbour," Guo said.
"Given the erroneous and dangerous remarks made by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi on Taiwan, we must question: Is the Japanese side making trouble and provocations at one's doorstep to find a pretext for its military build-up and missions overseas," he said.