China holds military drills focusing on Taiwan Strait

Taipei: China conducted military drills around Taiwan for a second day Wednesday focusing on the Taiwan Strait separating the self-governing island democracy from China that is a crucial conduit for international trade.

The Strait Thunder-2025A drills were held Wednesday morning in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) spokesperson said.

Taiwan’s military said it was closely monitoring the drills but there was nothing unusual on the island of 23 million people that China claims as its own territory. Wednesday’s exercises “focus on subjects of identification and verification, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention so as to test the troops’ capabilities of area regulation and control, joint blockade and control, and precisi on strikes on key targets.”