Beijing said its exercises served as a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.

The drills, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, “test the joint operations capabilities of the theater command’s troops”, said Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command. They are taking place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island,” he said.

Fighter jets and warships had been deployed, Chinese state media said.

China’s coast guard was also dispatched to conduct “inspections” around the island. A diagram released by the coast guard showed four fleets encircling Taiwan and moving in an anticlockwise direction around the island.

Taiwan said four “formations” of China coast guard ships were patrolling around the island, but they had not entered its prohibited or restricted waters. “In the face of enemy threats, all officers and soldiers of the country are in full readiness,” Taiwan’s defence ministry said Monday.

Lieutenant Colonel Fu Zhengnan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, said in a video shared by state media that the drills could “switch from training to combat at any time.” “If Taiwan separatists provoke once, the PLA’s operation around the island will make their first move,” Fu said, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.

The current dispute between China and Taiwan dates back to a civil war in which the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek were defeated by Mao Zedong’s communist fighters and fled to Taiwan in 1949. Since then, China and Taiwan have been ruled separately.