Sawt Falasteen - China launches three days of military drills around Taiwan

The move sparked condemnation from Taipei and calls for restraint from Washington, which said it was "monitoring Beijing's actions closely".

Dubbed "United Sharp Sword", the three-day operation -- which state media said includes rehearsing an encirclement of Taiwan -- will run until Monday, the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement.

China's war games would send planes, ships and personnel into "the maritime areas and air space of the Taiwan Strait, off the northern and southern coasts of the island, and to the island's east", said Shi Yin, a PLA spokesman.

A report from state broadcaster CCTV said: "The task force will simultaneously organise patrols and advances around Taiwan island, shaping an all-round encirclement and deterrence posture."

The report went on to detail the type of weaponry China was putting through its paces, including "long-range rocket artillery, naval destroyers, missile boats, air force fighters, bombers, jammers and refuellers".

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen immediately denounced the drills, which come after she met with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.

She pledged to work with "the US and other like-minded countries" in the face of "continued authoritarian expansionism".

In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said the United States had "consistently urged restraint and no change to the status quo", but noted it had ample resources to fulfil its security commitments in Asia.

The United States has been ambiguous on whether it would militarily defend Taiwan, although for decades it has sold weapons to Taipei to help ensure its self-defence.

Taiwan's defence ministry released a video showing soldiers loading antiaircraft missile launchers, fighter jets taking off, and other military preparedness exercises.

The footage included surveillance of China's Shandong aircraft carrier, which sailed through waters south of Taiwan earlier this week.

The 75-second clip, which included English subtitles, ended with a caption saying: "We seek neither escalation nor conflict, but we remain steadfast, rational, and serious to react and defend our territory and sovereignty."

- Live-fire exercises -

Exercises on Monday will include live-fire drills off the coast of China's Fujian province, which faces Taiwan, the local maritime authority said.

"These operations serve as a stern warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking 'Taiwan independence' and external forces and against their provocative activities," the PLA's Shi said.

"The operations are necessary for safeguarding China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

China views democratic, self-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has vowed to seize it one day, by force if necessary.

Taiwan's defence ministry said that by 4:00 pm (0800 GMT) on Saturday, nine Chinese warships and 71 military aircraft had been detected around the island.

An earlier tally had already taken the number of daily aircraft crossings into Taiwan's southwestern air defence identification zone (ADIZ) to a new single day high this year, according to data collected by AFP.

"The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) deliberately created tension in the Taiwan Strait, which... has a negative impact on the security and economic development of the international community," the defence ministry said.

The drills also follow the departure from Beijing of French President Emmanuel Macron and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who were in China to urge Xi Jinping to help bring an end to the war in Ukraine.

- 'We will never yield' -

China deployed warships, missiles and fighter jets around Taiwan last August in its largest show of force in years, following a trip to the island by McCarthy's predecessor, Nancy Pelosi.

McCarthy, who is second in line to the US presidency, had originally planned to go to Taiwan himself.

The decision to meet in California instead was viewed as a compromise that would underscore support for Taiwan but avoid inflaming tensions with Beijing.

"I am the Speaker of the House. There is no place that China is going to tell me where I can go or who I can speak to," McCarthy wrote on Twitter.

There were no immediate signs on Saturday of heightened military activity on the southeastern Chinese island of Pingtan, the country's closest point to Taiwan.

A handful of cargo ships cruised through the waters near the coastline, while tourists snapped selfies on viewing platforms.

Tsai returned to Taiwan on Friday after visiting her island's dwindling band of official diplomatic allies in Latin America, with two US stopovers that included meetings with McCarthy and other lawmakers.

Hours before Tsai met McCarthy on Wednesday, China sent the carrier Shandong through Taiwan's southeastern waters on its way to the western Pacific.

"The future of Taiwan lies in reunification with the motherland," foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said Friday.

Chinese military commentator Song Zhongping said the exercises were intended to demonstrate that the Chinese army will be ready, if "provocation intensifies", to "solve the Taiwan issue once and for all".

James Char, a research fellow in the China Programme at the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies in Singapore, told AFP the drills underlined Beijing's "nationalist credentials to its domestic audience and score political points at home".

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T.Samara--SF-PST