CHINA has ramped up fears of a global showdown after firing nearly 30 live-fire rockets close to Taiwan during its biggest ever military drill around the island.
Beijing unleashed the provocative show of force as warships, bomber aircraft and new amphibious assault vessels moved in on Taiwan for a second day of exercises rehearsing a full blockade.
The communist regime claims the self-governing island as its own territory. The dispute has threatened to catalyse World War Three.
China’s aggressive drills come just days after Washington approved £8bn worth of arms sales to Taiwan.
Despite the rising tension, Donald Trump insisted he was not worried by China’s actions.
The exercises, dubbed “Justice Mission 2025“, began on Monday and cover the largest area yet while taking place closer to Taiwan than ever before.
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China deployed troops, warships, fighter jets and artillery to demonstrate its ability to cut the island off from outside help in the event of war.
On Tuesday, China’s Eastern Theatre Command confirmed it had fired rockets into waters both north and south of Taiwan.
Live-firing drills disrupted sea and airspace across five areas surrounding the island.
Footage released by Beijing appeared to show a PCH-191 advanced long-range rocket launcher blasting rounds into the sea, with Taiwan’s Security Monitor reporting that 27 rocket impacts had been detected.
The system is designed to rival the US Himars platform and Chinese officials claim it can hit any target in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said debris landed as close as 24 nautical miles from the island’s coast.
The ministry condemned the drills, branding Beijing “the greatest destroyer of peace”.
Officials said 130 Chinese military aircraft and 22 navy and coastguard vessels were operating around Taiwan.
Some Chinese ships were involved in tense stand-offs with Taiwanese vessels as the drills simulated a blockade of the island’s ports.
Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te said frontline troops were ready to defend the island, but stressed Taipei did not want to escalate the crisis.
On Monday, Trump brushed off concerns and pointed to his relationship with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
He said: “I have a great relationship with President Xi, and he hasn’t told me anything about it.”
Apparently referring to military action against Taiwan, he added: “I don’t believe he’s going to be doing it.
“Nothing worries me. Nothing. They’ve been doing naval exercises for 20 years in that area.”
The war games began just 11 days after the Trump administration announced the largest weapons package ever approved for Taiwan, which has governed itself since 1949.
The move sparked fury in Beijing, with China’s defence ministry warning the military would “take forceful measures” in response.
Xi warned Trump in a phone call earlier this year that Taiwan’s return to China is “an integral part of the post-war international order”.
Foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said any attempts to stop China’s unification with Taiwan were “doomed to fail”.
China has also stepped up its territorial rhetoric, particularly after Japan’s prime minister suggested Tokyo could intervene militarily if Taiwan were attacked.
The “Justice Mission” drills are China’s sixth major round of exercises since 2022, when then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.
Taipei is closely watching to see whether Beijing will fire missiles over the island, as it did during that earlier crisis.
Under US law, Washington must provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself, though arms sales remain a major flashpoint with China.
China has a number of notorious allies who would be likely to get involved in some form.
These include the other two members of the Axis of Evil trio in North Korea‘s Kim Jong-un and Vladimir Putin.
The past few years have seen dozens of similarly terrifying dress rehearsal invasions take place in the South China Sea.
Experts warn the drills are blurring the line between routine training and preparations for a real attack, a tactic that could leave the US and its allies with little warning.
Last week, a draft Pentagon report said China “expects to be able to fight and win a war on Taiwan by the end of 2027”.
It comes just weeks after Taiwan’s government fired a stark warning to Beijing, vowing to ready itself for all-out war within two years.
Why does China want to invade Taiwan?
TAIWAN insists it is an independent nation after splitting from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.
But China claims Taiwan remains a part of its territory with which it must eventually be reunified – and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island and place it under Beijing’s control.
The island, which is roughly 100 miles from the coast of south-east China, sees itself as distinct from the Chinese mainland, with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
Taiwan sits in the so-called “first island chain”, which includes a list of US-friendly territories that are crucial to Washington’s foreign policy in the region.
This also puts it in an ideal situation to slow a Chinese attack on the West.
And with tensions between the two nations high, Taiwan is likely to aid China’s enemy if it means keeping its independence.
Taiwan’s economy is another factor in China’s desperation to reclaim the land.
If China takes the island, it could be freer to project power in the western Pacific and rival the US, thanks to much of the world’s electronics being made in Taiwan.
This would allow Beijing to have control over an industry that drives the global economy.
China insists that its intentions are peaceful, but President Xi Jinping has also used threats towards the small island nation.