China announces the end of military maneuvers around Taiwan
China announced the end of two days of large-scale military exercises around Taiwan, which it described as "severe punishment for the separatist acts" of the island's new President William Lai Ching-te.
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China's military has "successfully concluded" exercises dubbed Joint Sword - 2024A, a presenter on state broadcaster CCTV-7, the channel responsible for military news, said late Friday.
See Also: Taiwan Coast Guard repels incursion by four Chinese ships (Portuguese version)
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said on Saturday that it had detected 62 Chinese warplanes and 27 Chinese naval vessels in the vicinity of the island and its outlying archipelagos over the past 24 hours.
In a statement, the ministry said 47 of those aircraft, including SU-30 fighter jets and H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, the de-facto border between the two sides.
It was the largest daily number of such incursions since April 11, 2023, when China launched a series of maneuvers around Taiwan after then-Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met with then-US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in the United States.
Some of the Chinese warplanes flew as close as 39 nautical miles (72.2 kilometers) to Keelung, a northern Taiwanese city that is home to a naval base, and 41 nautical miles (76 kilometers) from Cape Eluanbi in the south, the ministry said.
Taiwan's armed forces "appropriately dispatched combat aircraft, naval vessels, and shore-based missile systems in response to the detected activities," the ministry said.
Over the two days of Chinese drills, Taiwan detected a total of 111 warplanes -- 82 of which crossed the Taiwan Strait median line -- and 53 Chinese navy and coast guard vessels.
On Friday, Taiwan's Coast Guard Administration said it had expelled four Chinese ships that entered waters near the Wuqiu and Dongyin islands, which lie just off the coast of mainland China.
Taiwan said it was the eighth time in May that Chinese coast guard vessels had sailed into "restricted waters" of the outlying archipelagos, affecting "navigational safety" and "harming regional peace and stability."
The Chinese military moves come days after Taiwan's new President William Lai took office and on Thursday called for calm, mobilized the island's military and vowed that his government would resolutely safeguard Taiwan's democracy.
The island operates as a self-governing political entity, with its own military and diplomatic relations, although it is not formally independent. Beijing views Taiwan as a province that must be reunified with the mainland, by force if necessary.
PUB
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