Beijing/Taipei, April 9, (dpa/GNA) - The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has simulated several precision strikes against “key targets on the island of Taiwan and surrounding sea areas,” state broadcaster CCTV reported on Sunday.
The precision strikes are part of military exercises that began on Saturday and are scheduled to continue until Monday.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry registered 70 fighter jets and 11 ships from the Chinese military by 4 pm on Sunday (0800 GMT). Of these, 35 aircraft had entered Taiwan’s south-western air defence identification zone. This is a buffer zone between the island state and the People’s Republic of China.
“Taiwan seeks neither escalation nor conflict,” the Defence Ministry in Taipei said.
Only on Wednesday, Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen met the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, for talks during a transit stop in the United States.
The communist leadership in Beijing regards the democratically self-governed island of Taiwan as part of the People’s Republic and threatens to conquer it.
A visit to Taiwan by McCarthy’s predecessor Nancy Pelosi in August heightened tensions and prompted military exercises near Taiwan by Beijing.
GNA