China on Tuesday kicked off large-scale military exercises around Taiwan involving its army, navy, air and rocket forces that it said were intended to practice blockading the island, just days after the U.S. defense chief’s visit to the region.
The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said that the joint exercises were practicing closing in on the democratic island “from multiple directions,” with Beijing also warning that efforts toward Taiwan independence meant “war.”
The exercises followed U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks in Tokyo on Sunday that Washington “is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait.”