BEIJING, December 15. /TASS/. The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) began a series of drills on Hainan Island on Wednesday. The Global Times reported that a live-fire exercise took place in the island's waters.

The exercises are aimed at improving the joint combat readiness of troops in maritime landing operations on the islands, the newspaper wrote. "Such exercises likely have the island of Taiwan in mind, as the PLA is eyeing to gain stronger capabilities to deter potential interferences by foreign forces on the Taiwan question," the newspaper quoted military expert Song Zhongping as saying.

All navigation is restricted in the waters of Hainan for the duration of the maneuvers. The exercises will last until December 17.

Taiwan is governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975), defeated in the Chinese Civil War, fled to the island. Since then, Taiwan retains the flag and some other attributes of the Republic of China, which existed on the mainland before the communists came to power. Beijing considers the island one of the provinces of the PRC.