China starts new war games near democratic Taiwan

Beijing begins manoeuvres in areas to north, south and east of island, days after President Lai’s first National Day speech.

China’s military has started a new round of war games with ships and aircraft near Taiwan, just days after the self-ruled democratic island marked its National Day.

The exercises, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, were taking place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan island” Captain Li Xi, the spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, said on Monday.

He added that the drills were “focusing on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas” and would also involve an “assault on maritime and ground targets”.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence expressed its strong condemnation of China’s “irrational and provocative act” and said it had “dispatched appropriate forces to respond accordingly to protect freedom and democracy, and defend the sovereignty” of Taiwan.

In recent years, China has stepped up its military activity around Taiwan, which it claims as its own. The latest drills come just days after the island’s President William Lai Ching-te gave his first National Day address, promising he would resist any “annexation or encroachment” and that Beijing had no right to represent the island’s 23 million people.

“It was widely anticipated that the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] would conduct military exercises following Lai’s National Day speech,” Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific programme, told Al Jazeera. “The drills have the effect of demonstrating to the domestic audience that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has the resolve to defend Chinese territory. They are also intended to warn Taipei and Washington not to cross Beijing’s red lines.”

Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and said the drills were a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces”.

It has condemned Lai, who was elected in January and took office in May, as a “separatist” and previously staged military exercises, Joint Sword-2024A, three days after his inauguration.

On Monday, the military’s Li said the war games were a “legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity”.

In his speech on October 10, Lai also appeared to reach out to Beijing, expressing hope for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges”, and urging Beijing to use its influence to help resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

China’s state-run Global Times, in an analysis of the speech published on Sunday, quoted analysts describing Lai’s speech as a “poison pill wrapped in cellophane”.

Beijing has sought to erase Taiwan from the international stage, blocking it from global forums and poaching its few remaining formal diplomatic allies.

With reporting from Erin Hale in Taipei

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Al Jazeera and news agencies