China culminated on Sunday the largest military exercises ever carried out around Taiwan, an angry reaction to the visit to the island of the president of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, the third authority of the superpower. The trip has led Beijing to break military cooperation relations with Washington – something serious – and even to interrupt talks on issues such as climate change.
Pelosi's visit was the most important by an American authority in 25 years to an island that China considers just another province. The Chinese army has carried out the most impressive military exercises in its history around the island, sending fighter planes, warships and ballistic missiles, which analysts consider to be a simulation of the blockade and invasion of Taiwan.
Yesterday the Chinese military conducted "joint practical exercises by sea and air, as planned." They were aimed at "contrasting joint firepower and our response capabilities," says a statement. Neither Beijing nor Taipei confirmed the end of maneuvers that were to end at noon.
The novelty is that Beijing has announced that it plans to start "live fire" exercises in the Yellow Sea, in the strait that separates China from the Korean peninsula.
Taiwan's Defense Minister has put the number of combat aircraft at 66 and the number of warships at 14 operating in the strait that separates mainland China from Taiwan, of which 22 would have crossed the median line that separates the East into two maritime space. Drawn unilaterally by the United States during the Cold War, this line has never been recognized by Beijing.
The exercises mark a new direction in the display of strength by the Chinese military, which until now has been reluctant to show its capabilities.
