China starts new military drills in Taiwan Strait amid tensions with Japan

Beijing: The Chinese military on Monday started new major drills in the “middle areas” of the Taiwan Strait amid rising diplomatic tensions with Japan over Taiwan that Beijing claims as its territory.

"The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command is employing fighters, bombers and unmanned aerial vehicles in coordination with long-range rocket fires to conduct drills in the waters and airspace in the middle areas of the Taiwan Strait on Monday," state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Focusing on striking mobile ground targets, the drills intend to test the troops' capabilities of precision strikes on key targets, it said.

China claims the self-governing Taiwan as part of its mainland and vows to integrate it.

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 landmark arms sale comes amid Taipei’s concerns over a potential.

China sharply criticised the US saying that Washington “blatantly announced its plan to sell massive advanced weapons to China’s Taiwan region” and send a “gravely wrong signal to “Taiwan independence” separatist forces”.

The arms sale aids Taiwan's independence forces' plans to turn the island into “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.

China has significantly stepped up Taiwan encirclement drills since 2022, following then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei which marked a significant show of support for Taiwan and infuriated Beijing’s leadership, CNN reported.