Fighter jets attached to an aviation brigade of the air force under the PLA Eastern Theater Command take off in formation for flight training recently. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Jiguang)

 
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command announced on Saturday morning that it has started encircling the island of Taiwan from four directions with combat alert patrols and joint exercises, which are scheduled to last from April 8 to 10. Experts have stated that this move marks a powerful response to the recent meeting between Taiwan regional leader Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, in addition to sanctions.

According to the plans, from Saturday to Monday, the PLA Eastern Theater Command will hold combat alert patrols and  “Joint Sword” exercises in the Taiwan Straits, as well as the sea and air regions to the north, south, and east of the island of Taiwan, encircling it, Senior Colonel Shi Yi, a spokesperson at PLA Eastern Theater Command, made the announcement in a press release on Saturday.

This is a stern warning to "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces and their collusion with external forces, and a necessary move to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, Shi said.

The drills started only a day after Tsai returned to the island of Taiwan on Friday following her meeting with McCarthy in California on Wednesday local time.

It is an expected countermeasure from the PLA in response to the highly provocative meeting between Tsai and McCarthy, Song Zhongping, a Chinese mainland military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Saturday. 

The patrols and drills will encircle the island of Taiwan from all four directions, effectively blockading and isolating it, with no foreign interference forces capable of entering or armed forces from the island of Taiwan capable of leaving, according to Song. 

Such a lockdown could send a strong warning to the secessionist forces on the island, urging them to lay down their weapons and resolve the question peacefully, he said.

The PLA operations are divided into two parts: combat alert patrols and joint exercises.

Combat alert patrols usually involve positioning forces in key locations and having them remain on guard for any anomalies, while joint exercises typically involve multiple armed services and branches practicing for combat, another Chinese mainland military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Saturday.

In this case, warships and warplanes are expected to surround the island and conduct real world combat-oriented drills, demonstrating the PLA's firm will and strong capability in safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the expert said. 

Meanwhile, the Maritime Safety Administration of East China's Fujian Province issued a navigation warning notice on Friday that a live-fire shooting exercise will be held on Monday in an area off the shores of Pingtan, only about 130 kilometers away from the island of Taiwan, which is divided by the Taiwan Straits.

Located in the narrowest part of the Taiwan Straits on the mainland side, Pingtan also hosted long-range rocket artillery live-fire shooting drills on targets in the eastern side of the Straits in the PLA’s large-scale exercises around the island of Taiwan in August 2022. 

Another navigation warning notice by the administration issued on Friday says live-fire shooting exercise will also be held on Saturday, Tuesday, Thursday, April 15, April 17 and April 20 in an area off the shores of Fuzhou, about 90 kilometers north of Pingtan. 

In the meantime, the “defense authority” on the island of Taiwan said in a press release on Saturday that it detected 13 PLA aircraft and three PLA vessels around the island of Taiwan over the past day.

The Shandong aircraft carrier group of the PLA Navy has reportedly arrived in the West Pacific waters southeast of the island of Taiwan by Wednesday, according to press releases from the “defense authority” on the island of Taiwan and Japan's Ministry of Defense Joint Staff.