Chinese President Xi Jinping called on the armed forces to step up their “real combat” training amid tensions over Taiwan and after three-day military exercises around the island.
For the Chinese government, the meeting last week between Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen and Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, was a provocation.
In response, the Chinese military organized military exercises in order to put pressure on Taiwan. The maneuvers ended on Monday. China mobilized warships, missile launchers, and fighter planes.
On Wednesday, state television CCTV broadcast Xi Jinping’s first public comments on those exercises.
The military should “resolutely uphold China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime interests, and strive to protect overall peripheral stability,” the leader said during a visit to a naval base in south China, but without mentioning Taiwan.
The rapprochement that the Taiwanese authorities and the United States have staged in recent years has caused irritation in Beijing. Despite the fact that Washington and Taipei do not have official relations, the United States provides substantial military aid.
