China holds military drills around Taiwan as 'punishment' days after new president sworn in - BBC

The east coast of Taiwan has long been the island's military redoubt.

It lies on the far side of a very high mountain range which rises close to 4,000 meters above sea level.

This coast is rugged with few areas suitable as landing beaches. Because of this Taiwan has built much of its hardened military infrastructure along this coast, including a large underground airbase inside a mountain near the city of Hualien.

It is also close to Japan’s southern islands, and a natural resupply route.

For many decades China did not possess the ability to attack Taiwan from the east, or to close the air and sea space on that side of the island. However, since 2022 China has sought to demonstrate that it can now do both.

In August 2022, for the very first time, it fired a ballistic missile over the top of Taiwan in to the Pacific Ocean.

Since then it has repeatedly sent naval and air patrols to the east. Today it is doing the same, only on a larger scale.

The aim is to show Taiwan that its eastern redoubt is now exposed to Chinese attack, and to show the Americans that any effort to resupply or re-enforce Taiwan from the east is vulnerable to Chinese missile strikes and naval attack.

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2024-05-23 07:18:45Z
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