Time.news – Fourth day of Chinese ‘war games’ around Taiwan; but it should have been the last day of exercises although Beijing has not yet confirmed the conclusion of the operations, launched in response to the visit of the President of the US House, Nancy Pelosi, to Taiwan.
On the fourth consecutive day of maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait, the most impressive ever carried out in the area, the script was always the same. Warplanes and frigates of the People’s Liberation Army they crossed the midline dividing Chinese and Taiwanese territorial waterspracticed with live bullets in Taiwanese waters and flew to the Kinmen archipelago, controlled by Taiwan but less than 10 kilometers from the Chinese province of Fujian.
Warships and fighters have again made the rounds of Taiwan. “The exercises focused on joint ground-firing attacks and long-range air strike capabilities,” the Chinese Army Oriental Theater command said in a note posted on its official account on the Weibo social media platform. without specifying if the exercises are finished.
The maneuvers, planned in six areas around the island, had started on Thursday and should have lasted until today at noon (Beijing local time, Italian dawn), according to reports from Chinese state media.
For its part, the Taiwanese transport ministry has made it known that six of the seven ‘temporary danger zones’ that China had identified – to warn airlines to avoid the area – have ceased to be in effect starting at noon today, which could suggest a partial conclusion of the exercises.
Taipei added that the seventh zone, in the waters east of Taiwan, will remain in effect until 10:00 local time on Monday (on Italian night, 04:00) “Relevant flights and departures may resume gradually“, the ministry added in a statement.
However, Beijing has already announced new exercises in the Yellow Sea, located between China and the Korean peninsula, which will be held until August 15.