China’s recent military drills near Taiwan were a substantive and “war-like” escalation on those conducted last August despite not including any missile launches, some analysts have said.
The drills were launched in retaliation to Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, traveling to the US and meeting the US house speaker, Kevin McCarthy. Beijing, which claims Taiwan as a province despite that being rejected by its government and people, declared the meeting a provocation by Taiwan “separatists”, enabled by the US.
