Chinese warships, fighter and bomber aircraft surrounded Taiwan todayas they continued for a second day military high schools large-scale with the aim, according to Beijing, to test the possibility of “seizing power” on the island, after the swearing in of its new president.

In high schools, which were baptized “Common Sword-2024A”, involving army, navy, air force and missile forces units; taking place after the inauguration on Monday of new President Lai Ching-te, as China saw in his speech a declaration of “Taiwan independence” and threatened “retaliation”.

They started yesterday morning and were expected to continue today, however analysts estimated that they could be extended, or new soon.

The aim is to test possibilities of “seizing power” on the island, unleashing “common blows” and imposing control over “key areas”, Li Xi, a spokesman for the Chinese military’s eastern theater command, said today.

Yesterday, Beijing presented these high schools as a “severe punishment” of the “autonomists” who explained that they would end up “drowning in blood”.

“Do not resist”

Videos released by the Chinese armed forces today show soldiers running out of a building to go into battle positions and fighter jets to take off, with military marches in the background.

According to Chinese state television CCTV, Chinese navy officers urged their Taiwanese counterparts not to “resist reunification by force”.

Chinese military animations showed a barrage of missiles hitting key targets in the north, south and east of the island, while a message assured it would “cut the blood vessels of Taiwan’s independence”.

Four Chinese Coast Guard vessels today entered the “forbidden” waters of two Taiwanese islands, Taipei said.

“This is the eighth time this month” that this has happened, Taiwan’s coast guard said, demanding that China “show restraint and stop its unreasonable behavior immediately.”

Taiwan “will defend the values ​​of freedom and democracy”, Mr Lai assured yesterday.

“I am going to the front line with our brothers and sisters in the armed forces to defend national security together,” he added.

UN appeal

China considers Taiwan its province, which is simply pending reunification with the mainland after the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, in which Mao Zedong’s Communists prevailed over the Nationalists.

In recent years, Beijing has intensified threats and political, economic and military pressure on Taiwan.

The high schools are being held as part of Taiwan’s “strict punishment of separatist actions” and “strict warning against any meddling and provocation by outside forces,” Li Xi said yesterday.

They were conducted “in the Taiwan Strait, north, south and east of Taiwan Island,” as well as in zones around the “Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongying” islands off the Chinese coast, it added, according to a Chinese military press release. .

The UN called on the parties to “refrain from any action that could exacerbate tensions” while in Washington an official who spoke on condition of anonymity assured that the US was “monitoring very closely” the situation and called on China to show “restraint ».

China says it would prefer a “peaceful” reunification with the island of 23 million people, but has never ruled out the use of military force.

In his inauguration speech, Lai Ching-te, who has previously been branded a “dangerous separatist” by Beijing, pledged to defend democracy on the island against what he described as Chinese threats. He demanded that China “stop political and military intimidation”. It also referred explicitly to a risk of “war”, following years of Chinese diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi commented the next day that Taiwan’s separatists would go down “in history” as a monument of “shame”.

Today, the official Xinhua News Agency and the newspaper-organ of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, the People’s Daily, published lead articles praising the military high schools, blasting Mr. Lai’s “treacherous” behavior and denouncing that he will suffer a “very hard blow”.

China’s previous large-scale drills around Taiwan were held in August 2023 as a “stern warning” from Beijing following a visit to the US by Mr Lai, then vice president.

Before that, Beijing had moved to high schools of historic size in August 2022, reacting to a visit to Taipei by Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives.