Beijing announces military drills around Taiwan for Thursday and Friday

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) announced on Thursday, May 23, that it is conducting military exercises around Taiwan and its outer islands as “punishment” for those advocating for independence.

The PLA’s Eastern Theater Command is overseeing a military exercise that includes land, sea, air, and rocket forces. The drills began on Thursday morning and will continue until Friday, May 24, taking place around Taiwan and its closest islands to China.

The Eastern Theater Command stated that from 7:45 a.m., the PLA will execute joint exercises named “Joint Sword-2024A” in the Taiwan Strait and around northern, southern, and eastern Taiwan, as well as Kinmen and Matsu.

Li Xihai (李熹海), spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, detailed that the drills include joint sea and aerial combat readiness patrols, battlefield control, and precision strikes on critical targets. The exercises will see warships and aircraft conducting combat patrols near Taiwan and coordinated operations within and beyond the island chain, testing the PLA’s joint operational combat capabilities.

The Eastern Theater Command declared these drills as “a strong punishment for ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces and a serious warning against interference and provocation by external forces.”

A map posted on the Eastern Theater Command’s Weibo page highlights five large exclusion zones to Taiwan’s northwest, east, southeast, southwest, and west. Additionally, circles are drawn over the main clusters of islands in Kinmen, Wuqiu, Matsu, and Dongyin.