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PLA drills point to stepped-up plans to take control of Taiwan, analysts say
- Exercises come after mainland China’s Eastern Theatre Command expanded facilities and troop deployments over the last few years
- Manoeuvres a political warning over growing ties between Washington and Taipei, observer says
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A series of PLA drills at the northern and southern ends of the Taiwan Strait signal that Beijing is stepping up preparations to take control of the self-ruled island, according to military analysts.
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Other signs included expansion of coastal military bases and the deployment of amphibious troop units in the area, they said.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, which oversees defences in the East China Sea and Taiwan Strait, said on Thursday that it conducted the drills north and south of Taiwan “in recent days”.
The command did not specify when and where the military exercises were staged. But the PLA had announced that there would be a two-day live-fire drill from Sunday in Zhoushan, Zhejiang province, about 550km (340 miles) north of Taiwan. A three-day drill was held in the area earlier this week.
And a military insider said the southern drill was held in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, about 300km southwest of Taiwan’s southernmost city of Kaohsiung.
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