China concludes military exercises simulating the siege and bombardment of Taiwan

China has concluded on Monday the military exercises with which it has simulated the blockade and bombardment of Taiwan for three days.

The deployment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA), the Chinese military, ordered on Saturday in response to the recent visit to the United States by Tsai Ing-wen, president of the self-ruled island, has "successfully completed" its mission to encircle the enclave, as assured by the Eastern Theater Command of the PLA, in charge of operations.

Dozens of ships, fighters and bombers with a real presence supported from the Chinese coast with the figurative launch of missiles have participated in the theater of war since Saturday.

Among the troops put to the test is one of the jewels of the Asian giant's naval force, the aircraft carrier Shandong.

The United States has responded by sending one of its destroyers to the vicinity of the Spratly Islands, where it has sailed through an area of ​​the South China Sea claimed by Beijing.

The war rehearsal around Taiwan, an enclave that Beijing claims as an inalienable part of its territory and to which the United States supplies weapons, has concluded with a triumphant tone on the part of the People's Republic.

"The troops [...] are ready for deployment at all times and determined to crush any form of Taiwanese secession or independence and foreign interference," Colonel Shi Yi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater Command of the EPL, through a statement.

In this message, he also announced the end of some maneuvers that have tested "the ability of the troops to carry out integrated joint operations in real combat conditions."

In the maneuvers of the third day, dozens of air vehicles equipped with live ammunition have been deployed - several of them have taken off from the Shandong aircraft carrier - and a fleet of 17 ships with which Beijing has sought to create a situation of "encirclement" by the four cardinal points of the island, as reported by CCTV.

From the air, H-6K bombers —with nuclear capability, according to specialized media— and combat fighters have simulated precision attacks against key targets in and around Taiwan, while, from the sea, destroyers and frigates have faked the pursuit and assault of evacuation ships and executed the maritime blockade.

The deployment has been accompanied by the broadcast of numerous epic videos that show with emotional music the air and sea exploits of the PLA in the surroundings of Taiwan, underlining the proximity to the enclave of operations.

One of the clips released on Sunday shows an animated simulation of the coordinated firing of a myriad of missiles that explode on impact with the island.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense has reported this Monday morning (local time) the detection of 70 Chinese planes and 11 ships around Taiwan, and has denounced that 35 of the aircraft have crossed the median dividing line of the Taiwan Strait between the Mainland China and the enclave.

"The air defense units of the Armed Forces of the Republic of China [name by which Taiwan is called] remain on high alert," added the aforementioned ministry on social networks.

“We will defend our skies.

And we will never give up our beliefs."

The statement has been published along with different images of anti-aircraft batteries, one of which shows the Taipei 101 skyscraper in the background, one of the symbols of the capital.

Meanwhile, the United States has sent the destroyer USS Milius to parts of the South China Sea.

The ship has sailed near the Mischief Reef, part of the Spratley Islands, located more than a thousand kilometers from Taiwan.

The reef is one of those that Beijing has artificially converted in recent years into a system of islets that even has an "airport and other facilities," according to the US military command.

China has described the intrusion as "illegal", but Washington considers that the crossing has respected international standards, given that this type of artificial construction "does not give the right to territorial sea", Reuters has reported.

The episode has ended without incident.

The third and last day of war games around Taiwan has also been aimed at removing all the propaganda ammunition from Beijing.

The official media have launched since Saturday a battery of articles to justify the deployment with an editorial climax this Monday.

The

, the propaganda organ of the Communist Party, has assured that the United States "has been using Taiwan as a pawn to contain the development and progress of China" and has accused Washington of violating the principle of "one China" .

"The question of Taiwan arose when China was not strong enough to complete its final national reunification," said

also a government-affiliated outlet.

"With China's global strength increasing, reunification is inevitable and the only question is whether it will be carried out peacefully or by force."

The harsh words that editorials and opinion articles dedicate to the Taiwanese president and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, of a Chinese-skeptical nature, contrasts with the treatment that former Taiwanese president Ma Jing-yeou, from the opposition Kuomintang, has received in recent days, plus close to Beijing.

While Tsai was in transit through the United States, Ma became the first president or former president of Taiwan to visit the People's Republic since the end of the civil war that led to the split in 1949. Both parties will face each other in the Taiwanese presidential election expected in January 2024, so China's message indicates where its preferences are going.

Beijing has reiterated this Monday, through the mouth of a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry, that the military exercises have been a "serious warning" against what it considers a "provocation" by the "Taiwan independence forces in collusion with foreign forces". ie: United States.

For the People's Republic, the meeting last week in Los Angeles of the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, with the leader of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, the country's third authority, has meant crossing a red line in the minefield that the three-way relations between Beijing, Washington and Taipei have become.

The democratic island exercises de facto independence, a fact that collides head-on with the interests of China, for which reunification is an existential matter.

Beijing has never renounced the use of force to achieve this "historic mission" and the lines that Chinese President Xi Jinping dedicates in his speeches to what he considers a necessary condition for the "rejuvenation of the Chinese nation" are usually always there. among the most applauded by the Party cadres.

Taiwan already enjoys the international recognition of only a handful of countries: only 13, and none of them of weight, as the capitals have been establishing diplomatic relations with communist China for decades and accepted the principle of “one China”. (and Taiwan as part of that one China).

But the enclave maintains informal and economic ties with numerous world capitals.

And it has its main ally in the United States.

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