BEIJING, August 4. /TASS/. The Chinese People’s Liberation Army launched missiles with conventional warheads into the water areas east of Taiwan in large-scale drills around the island, Spokesperson for the Chinese Army’s Eastern Theater Command Senior Colonel Shi Yi said in a statement on Thursday.
"On the afternoon of August 4, the missile troops of the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army conducted launches of missiles with conventional warheads against many water areas east of Taiwan," the statement reads.
All the missiles accurately hit the notional targets in the designated areas of the drills, the spokesperson said.
The Chinese Amy accomplished all the tasks of its live-fire exercise in full and control of the relevant parts of the sea and the airspace was lifted, the statement reads.
The Chinese troops switched to sweeping live-fire drills in six water areas around Taiwan on August 4. The maneuvers kicked off at 12:00 local time (07:00 a.m. Moscow time) and will last until the mid-afternoon of August 7. As Taiwan’s Central News Agency reported earlier, three of the six areas of the drills overlap with the waters that the island’s administration considers as its territorial waters.
The news about the Chinese Amy’s maneuvers appeared several minutes after a plane carrying US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi touched down in Taipei Songshan Airport on the evening of August 2. The scenario of the drills envisages live-firings and, therefore, the Chinese authorities have warned about banning civil aircraft and ships from entering the relevant six water areas. In experts’ estimates, the current maneuvers will surpass by their scope similar drills held during the crisis in the Taiwan Strait in 1996-1997.
.