China sent dozens of warplanes “fully loaded with live ammunition” and several navy destroyers and frigates all around Taiwan and its outlying islands on Thursday, launching large-scale military drills as “punishment for separatist acts” after the inauguration of Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te.
The forces were simulating strikes on “high value ‘enemy’ targets” in military drills that run through Friday, according to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV.
This conflict, the PRC shelled the islands of Kinmen (Quemoy) and the Matsu Islands along the east coast of mainland China (in the Taiwan Strait) in an attempt to take control of Taiwan from the Chinese Nationalist Party, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), and to probe the extent of the United States' defense.
Leadership on both sides of the strait continued to view the islands as a potential launching pad for an ROC invasion to retake the Chinese mainland and had an interest in controlling the islands. U.S. policy toward East Asia in the early Cold War contributed to the tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
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