A fighter jet attached to an aviation brigade with the air force under the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command soars into the air during a round-the-clock flight training exercise on April 8, 2024. Photo:China Military

Ahead of the scheduled inauguration of Taiwan regional leader-elect Lai Ching-te, Western media on Tuesday sensationalized the so-called joint drills between the navies of the US and the island of Taiwan held in April.

Slamming military collusion between the US and the island of Taiwan, Chinese mainland experts said that such exercises have little military significance, and that the media hype is a political stunt lending support to "Taiwan independence" separatists.

Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reported on Tuesday that the navies of the US and the island of Taiwan conducted joint drills in the West Pacific in April, which were not publicized at the time.

Dubbed "unplanned sea encounters" and lasting for days, the drills featured about half a dozen of warships from both sides including frigates and supply and support vessels as they practiced "basic" operations such as communications, refueling and resupply, Reuters reported.

In response to the report, Wang Wenbin, spokesperson of China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said at a routine press conference on Tuesday that China is firmly opposed to the US's military contact with Taiwan. This position is consistent and unequivocal.

"We urge the US to earnestly abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués and stop its wrong behavior of having military contact with Taiwan. We also have a clear message for the DPP authorities: seeking "Taiwan independence" and resisting reunification with force is bound to fail. They can be assured of that," Wang said. 

It is questionable whether the "joint drills" were indeed "unplanned sea encounters," but both the US and the DPP authorities know that military contact is a serious provocation, so they did not make any official announcement, a Chinese mainland military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Tuesday.

But a week before Lai's scheduled inauguration on May 20, the so-called sources used media to publicize and sensationalize the event to show US "support" to the hard-line "Taiwan independence" separatist Lai, while attempting not to provoke the Chinese mainland, the expert said, calling the move a "gray zone tactic."

It is a political stunt with little military significance, because the training courses were indeed "basic," the expert said.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has overwhelming military advantages in the Taiwan Straits and around the island of Taiwan, and it regularly holds exercises in the region.