China responds to US ‘provocation’

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) staged military exercises near Taiwan on Sunday, its Eastern Theater Command said in a statement. Beijing has blamed the US and the self-governing island for the continued escalation in the region.

The military “organized joint combat-readiness patrols and joint firepower strike drills in airspace and waters around Taiwan,” the command spokesman, Colonel Shi Yi, said in a brief statement, without specifying the exact location or the scale of the exercise.

The colonel called the drills “a resolute response to the escalating collusion and provocation by the United States and Taiwan,” adding that the PLA would take “all necessary measures” to defend China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.