China “put pressure” on taiwan this Saturday with some military maneuvers who “surrounded the island” in response to the visit made by the president of taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, in the United States, Chinese state media reported. The exercises, announced by the Chinese Army this Saturday, included the deployment of “rockets, conventional missiles, ships and planes“, collected the state chain CCTV.

The maneuvers focused on “putting to the test the forces capacity to achieve control of sea, air and information” under the “support of the unified command system” to “create a repressive situation in which the island is left surrounded in all four directionsAmong the weapons mobilized today are PHL-191 missile launch systems, a 052C destroyer ship, Type 22 ships equipped with J-10C missiles and fighters, as well as DF-11 conventional ballistic missiles, the local newspaper Global Times reported. These drills are practically equivalent to the dress rehearsal of a blockade on the island; a scenario designed to prevent both the deployment of Taiwanese forces and external interference, according to military expert Song Zhongping, consulted by the same media.

The exercises began just after Beijing announced them on the local Saturday morning, which “shows the speed of deployment of the Chinese Army and the efficient coordination between its different sections,” said the military expert. song zhongping, quoted by the newspaper. Song said the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong “will probably take part” in the exercises, which will last until Monday.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense warned on Thursday of the passage of the Shandong through the Bashi Canal – a section that separates Taiwan from the Philippines. He shandong It is China’s second aircraft carrier – the first nationally manufactured – and has been in service since 2022. The Chinese Army’s Eastern Theater of Operations notified today the organization of military maneuvers around the island, after the Taiwanese president, Tsai Ing-wenwill meet this Wednesday in California with the speaker of the United States House of RepresentativesKevin McCarthy.

The spokesman for the Theater of Operations, Shi Yi, defined the maneuvers as “a serious warning” against “the provocation of the separatist forces” and a “necessary action to protect the national sovereignty and territorial integrity” of China. The situation is reminiscent of that experienced last August, when the visit to Taiwan of the then speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, angered beijing, who responded with military maneuvers around the island to a trip he described as “farce” and “deplorable treason.” Beijing considers Taiwan a rebel province since the Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communist army.