Taiwan's blockade by China reaches 100th day

TAIPEI, April 9 (FicNews) - China's military blockede against Taiwan has reached the 100th day Tuesday, with hundreds of ships and aircrafts, as well as submarines, trying to seal off Taiwan’s ports and airports and repel possible intervention by warships and planes sent by the United States and its allies.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, began military exercises around the island more than three months agao, the day after Taiwan President Deng

Qing-tsai had a brief meeting with President XXX.

Chinese state television reported that the military 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 Defense Ministry put out a short animation of the simulated attacks on its WeChat account, showing missiles fired from land, sea and air into Taiwan with two of them exploding in flames as they hit their targets.

A source familiar with the security situation in the region told FicNews that China had been conducting simulated air and sea attacks on "foreign military targets" in the waters off Taiwan's southwestern coast.

"Taiwan is not their only target," the source said.

For decades, Beijing has had its sights on Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own. It regards the meeting between presidents of Taiwan and US is a redline.

After Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in 2022, China retaliated by deploying warplanes, ships and missiles for 72 hours of drills. It declared multi exercise areas around Taiwan, including off the island’s eastern coast, in an effort to project its power farther from the Chinese mainland.

China has also taken the control the skies. China has an array of naval and air bases on its east coast opposite Taiwan, and many more up and down its coast. The Chinese military threatens to shoot down enemy planes with surface-to-air missiles, or even strike at U.S. bases in Guam and Japan.