China has announced the end of the large-scale military maneuvers it has been carrying out since Thursday around the island of Taiwan to demonstrate its opposition to what it considers separatist remarks by the new Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te.
The Chinese army “successfully completed” the “Joint Sword-2024A” exercises against Taiwan, a presenter from CCTV-7, the Chinese state television responsible for military news, said on Friday evening.
The army’s Eastern theater of operations announced Thursday morning that it had started these maneuvers, scheduled to last until Friday inclusive. But he had still not explicitly confirmed on Saturday that they had ended the day before.
Warships, planes, soldiers and missile launchers were mobilized to encircle Taiwan as part of these military maneuvers officially named in English “Joint Sword-2024A” (or “United Sharp Swords-2024A” in French).
These exercises involved the ground forces, navy, air force and rocket unit (responsible for strategic missiles) and took place mainly “in the Taiwan Strait, to the north, south and east from the island of Taiwan.
They also took place in areas around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin, all located in close proximity to China’s east coast.
China considers Taiwan to be one of its provinces, which it has not yet succeeded in reunifying with its territory since the end of the civil war and the coming to power of the communists in 1949.
Beijing says it favors “peaceful” reunification with the island territory of 23 million inhabitants but does not rule out using force.
The previous large-scale Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan took place in August 2023 after a visit by Mr. Lai, then vice-president, to the United States.
Beijing also carried out exercises of a historic scale in August 2022 after the stay on this island of Nancy Pelosi, then president of the American House of Representatives.