Song Zhongping, a mainland military commentator and former PLA instructor, said the PLA is using the drills to practice a “ blockade” of Taiwan.
“It is a warning to Lai,” Song said. “It is not the first time the PLA did so, but this time is is more severe,” he said.
The PLA said the exercises will focus on naval and air combat readiness patrols, seizing battlefield control, precise strikes of crucial targets, as well as warship and aircraft patrols near the island to “test the joint combat and real combat capabilities of the theatre forces”.
The drills are taking place to the west, north and east of the main island of Taiwan, as well as near its outlying islands.
The eastern side of Taiwan – which faces the Pacific Ocean – is shielded from the mainland by mountains. It is usually considered the weak leak in the Taiwanese military defence and has been targeted in other recent PLA drills.
The Taiwanese defence ministry released a statement calling the drills a provocation that disrupts regional peace and stability, adding that its naval, air and ground forces are standing by.
The coastguard force in Fujian – the mainland province just across the Taiwan Strait from the self-ruled island – said it sent a fleet on Thursday to take part in patrols of Wuqiu and Dongyin, two outlying islands controlled by Taipei.
The PLA has recently included mainland coastguard forces in its drills near Taiwan, and patrols by coastguards have ramped up since February, when two fishermen from the mainland died after their boat capsized during a chase by Taiwanese patrol vessels near Quemoy.
The mainland slammed Taipei, accusing it of using “violent and dangerous methods” in the incident.
Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory, to be returned eventually to mainland control, by force if necessary, and views Lai as a separatist and troublemaker who advocates for independence – Beijing’s red line that must not be crossed.
Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan. However, Washington is opposed to any unilateral change to the status quo and is committed to the defence of the island. The US is also Taiwan’s main supplier of arms.
Hours after Lai was sworn in on Monday, Beijing slammed his inauguration speech.
A statement by the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the speech “stubbornly adheres to the stance of ‘Taiwan independence’, vigorously promotes the fallacy of separatism, incites cross-strait confrontation, and attempts to ‘rely on external forces to seek independence’”.
Days ahead of Tsai’s inauguration in 2016, the PLA conducted military drills in China’s southeastern waters, without mentioning the Taiwan Strait. At the time, Beijing said the exercises were routine and based on the PLA’s annual exercise plans.
Since then, Beijing has ramped up military pressure as cross-strait relations under Tsai plunged. The PLA Navy launched unprecedented massive drills around the island in 2022 after then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi defied Beijing’s repeated warnings and visited Taipei.
Eastern Theatre Command also released a series of posters, featuring military hardware that is “already in place” and targeting “Taiwan independence, according to a post on its social media account on Thursday.
The J-20, China’s most advanced fighter jet and the J-16 featured in the posters with the slogan “cross-strait lethality”, along with a Type 052D guided-missile destroyer, DF missiles and long-range rocket launchers.
Included in the poster line-up was the Type 071 landing platform dock, capable of carrying a large number of troops, together with amphibious armoured vehicles, air-cushioned landing craft with tanks, as well as helicopters.
