China drills to ratchet up pressure on Taiwan

Beijing – China's military began a live-fire exercise near Taiwan yesterday, maintaining pressure on the self-ruled island after staging large-scale drills and President Xi Jinping called for troops to prepare for war.

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China's Communist Party has never ruled the island. It, however, claims Taiwan as part of its territory and says it will not renounce the use of force to bring it under its control.

This month, it sent planes and warships around the island in what Beijing said was a “stern warning to separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.

On Monday, the Maritime Safety Administration (MSA) in the eastern island of Pingtan announced that “gun firing” would take place in a limited area close to the Chinese mainland, about 105km from Taiwan.