China fires “live ammunition” into the Taiwan Strait in yet another exercise, although the action takes place in a small area close to its coast and relatively far from the island.
However, this operation will take place a week after the large-scale military encirclement exercises organized by Beijing around Taiwan, presented by the Chinese side as a desire to send a “warning” to the Taiwanese “separatists”. The operation also follows the passage of two warships, one American and one Canadian, through the Taiwan Strait on Sunday.
“On October 22, 2024, shots with live ammunition will be fired,” read a statement from the China Maritime Security Administration in Pingtan, a city in the eastern Chinese province of Fujian. It will be “prohibited from entering” the area in question, which is close to the Chinese coast, the administration added in its notice to ships. Pingtan is the closest mainland Chinese location to Taiwan, about 126 kilometers away. The area where the shooting will take place is about one hundred kilometers from the island. China’s Pingtan Maritime Safety Administration did not specify who would carry out the shooting or what the target would be.
Operations of this type are regularly organized off the coast of the county, but the fact that the national media reported them could indicate that the aim is to send a new message to the Taiwanese and American authorities.
China considers Taiwan one of its provinces that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of the territory since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. Beijing says it is in favor of a peaceful reunification, but reiterated last week, at the end of its maneuvers military, who will “never” abandon the option of “using force” if necessary. Washington and its allies regularly cross the Taiwan Strait to reaffirm what they present as the principle of freedom of navigation. Beijing sees these crossings as a provocation aimed at challenging its claims to the island.
