{"id":3600,"date":"2022-08-07T17:32:38","date_gmt":"2022-08-07T11:32:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/?p=3600"},"modified":"2022-08-07T17:32:38","modified_gmt":"2022-08-07T11:32:38","slug":"china-to-conduct-regular-military-drills-east-of-taiwan-strait-median-line-state-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/photonews\/2022\/08\/07\/news\/3600\/","title":{"rendered":"China to conduct \u2018regular\u2019 military drills east of Taiwan Strait median line: state media"},"content":{"rendered":"
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China raged at US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, ripping up series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington. (Reuters)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

BEIJING, Broadcasting News Corporation : The Chinese military will from now on conduct \u201cregular\u201d drills on the eastern side of the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state television reported on Sunday, citing a commentator. The median line in the narrow strait between the island of Taiwan and mainland China is an unofficial line of control that military aircraft and battleships from either side normally do not cross.
\nThe median line has never been legally recognized, and is an \u201cimaginary\u201d line drawn up by the US military for their combat requirements in the previous century, according to the state television commentator.
\nEarlier, China\u2019s largest-ever military exercises surrounding Taiwan drew to a close on Sunday following a controversial visit last week to the self-ruled island by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Beijing has raged at the trip by Pelosi \u2014 the second in the line of succession to the US presidency \u2014 ripping up a series of talks and cooperation agreements with Washington, most notably on climate change and defense. It has also deployed fighter jets, warships and ballistic missiles around Taiwan in what analysts have described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of the island. Those exercises were set to end Sunday, though Beijing has announced fresh drills in the Yellow Sea \u2014 located between China and the Korean peninsula \u2014 to take place until August 15. Taiwan\u2019s transport ministry said six of the seven \u201ctemporary danger zones\u201d China warned airlines to avoid ceased to be in effect as of noon on Sunday, signalling a drawdown of the drills. It said the seventh zone, in waters east of Taiwan, would remain in effect until 10:00 am (0300 GMT) local time on Monday. \u201cRelevant flights and sailings can gradually resume,\u201d the ministry said in a statement. Taipei said some routes were still being affected in the seventh area, and authorities would continue to monitor ship movements there. Earlier on Sunday, Beijing conducted \u201cpractical joint exercises in the sea and airspace surrounding Taiwan Island as planned,\u201d the Chinese military\u2019s Eastern Command said. The drills were focused \u201con testing the joint firepower on the ground and long-range air strike capabilities,\u201d it added. Taipei\u2019s defense ministry also confirmed that China had dispatched \u201cplanes, vessels and drones\u201d around the Taiwan Strait, \u201csimulating attacks on Taiwan\u2019s main island and on ships in our waters.\u201d Beijing also sent drones over Taiwan\u2019s outlying islands, it added. In response, the democratic island said it mobilized a \u201cjoint intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance system to closely monitor the enemy situation\u201d as well as sending planes and vessels. China\u2019s defense ministry did not respond to a request for comment about the expected conclusion of the drills on Sunday. To show how close China\u2019s forces have been getting to Taiwan\u2019s shores, Beijing\u2019s military released a video of an air force pilot filming the island\u2019s coastline and mountains from his cockpit. And the Eastern Command of the Chinese army shared a photo it said was taken of a warship patrolling seas near Taiwan with the island\u2019s shoreline visible in the background. The drills have also seen Beijing fire ballistic missiles over Taiwan\u2019s capital, according to Chinese state media.
\nTaipei has remained defiant throughout China\u2019s sabre-rattling, insisting it will not be cowed by its \u201cevil neighbor.\u201d Taiwan\u2019s foreign ministry urged Beijing on Saturday to \u201cimmediately stop raising tensions and taking provocative actions to intimidate the Taiwanese people.\u201d But experts have warned the drills reveal an increasingly emboldened Chinese military capable of carrying out a gruelling blockade of the self-ruled island as well as obstructing US forces from coming to its aid. \u201cIn some areas, the PLA might even surpass US capabilities,\u201d Grant Newsham, a researcher at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies and former US Navy officer, told AFP, referring to China\u2019s military by its official name. \u201cIf the battle is confined to the area right around Taiwan, today\u2019s Chinese navy is a dangerous opponent \u2014 and if the Americans and Japanese do not intervene for some reason, things would be difficult for Taiwan.\u201d The scale and intensity of China\u2019s drills \u2014 as well as Beijing\u2019s withdrawal from key talks on climate and defense \u2014 have triggered outrage in the United States and other democracies. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meeting with his Philippine counterpart on Saturday, said Washington was \u201cdetermined to act responsibly\u201d to avoid a major global crisis. China should not hold talks on issues of global concern such as climate change \u201chostage,\u201d Blinken said, as it \u201cdoesn\u2019t punish the United States, it punishes the world.\u201d The United Nations has also urged the two superpowers to continue to work together. \u201cFor the secretary-general, there is no way to solve the most pressing problems of all the world without an effective dialogue and cooperation between the two countries,\u201d his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. News collected from ARAB NEWS.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BEIJING, Broadcasting News Corporation : The Chinese military will from now on conduct \u201cregular\u201d drills on the eastern side of the median line of the Taiwan Strait, Chinese state television reported on Sunday, citing a commentator. The median line in the narrow strait between the island of Taiwan and mainland China is an unofficial line …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3601,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-photonews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3600"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3602,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3600\/revisions\/3602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bnc24.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}