China on Tuesday conducted large-scale military exercises around Taiwan focused on “precision strikes” and blockading the island, just days after the U.S. defense chief’s visit to the region.
The Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said the joint exercises were “aimed at testing the troops’ capabilities of carrying out integrated operations, seizure of operational control, and multi-directional precision strikes,” with Beijing also warning Taiwan’s leadership that efforts toward 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.”
