UPDATE - China continues large-scale drills around Taiwan

UPDATES WITH MORE DETAILS, CHANGES HEADER, DECK, LEDE

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) - China Friday continued large-scale joint military exercises around Taiwan, state media reported.

Led by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), “integrated operations inside and outside the island chain are being conducted to test the command's capabilities to jointly take battlefield control and launch joint strikes, and to seize control of crucial areas,” Li Xi, the spokesman for the PLA Eastern Theater Command, said.

Code-named Joint Sword-2024A, the PLA has launched mass military exercises since Thursday which include personnel and weaponry from the army, navy, air force, and rocket force.

The drills triggered calls for “restraint” from Taipei which saw the transition to a new administration earlier this week when William Lai Cheng-te was inaugurated as president.

Lai visited Taiwanese troops Thursday at a northern military base after China began the PLA drills around the island nation, home to around 24 million people.

He vowed to defend Taiwan but Beijing warned those seeking independence from China of seeing themselves being “crushed.”

Early Friday, the Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) Friday held a “law enforcement” exercise east of Taiwan as part of Beijing’s large-scale military drills.

CCG vessel 2304 led a flotilla of vessels to conduct a “comprehensive law enforcement exercise in the waters east of Taiwan island,” said the Coast Guard.

“The exercise focused on subjects such as verification and identification, warning and expulsion, and testing the capabilities of joint patrols and emergency response,” said a spokesman of the CCG.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it detected 49 Chinese military planes and 19 Chinese vessels until 6 a.m. Friday (2200GMT, Thursday).

“35 of the (Chinese) aircraft crossed the median line of Taiwan Strait and entered” Taiwan's southwestern air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the ministry added.

China neither recognizes the median line nor ADIZ.

At the launch of the exercises, the PLA said the drills “serve as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces and a stern warning against interference and provocation by external forces.”