20 warships in combat mode, China-Taiwan standoff persists

Taipei, April 9

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Nearly 20 military ships, about 10 Chinese and 10 Taiwanese, are involved in a stand-off near the Taiwan Strait’s median line, a source familiar with the situation said on Sunday.

China’s military simulated precision strikes against Taiwan in a second day of drills around the island on Sunday, with the island’s defence ministry reporting multiple air force sorties and that it was monitoring China’s missile forces.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, began three days of military exercises around the island on Saturday, the day after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen returned from a brief visit to the United States.

Chinese state television reported that the combat readiness patrols and drills around Taiwan were continuing. “Under the unified command of the theatre joint operations command centre, multiple types of units carried out simulated joint precision strikes on key targets on Taiwan island and the surrounding sea areas, and continue to maintain an offensive posture around the island,” it said.

The Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command put out a short animation of the simulated attacks on its WeChat official account, showing missiles fired from land, sea and air into Taiwan with two of them exploding in flames as they hit their targets. — Reuters