Taiwan starts artillery drills to counter China.

Taiwan’s military began live-fire artillery drills on Tuesday, forging a defense of the island against an attack after the days of tremendous Chinese military exercises, an AFP journalist at the site of the activity reported.

Lou Woei-jye, the spokesman for Taiwan’s Eighth Army Corps, affirmed that the drills had begun in the southern county of Pingtung briefly after 0040 GMT with target flares and artillery firing. The drill will conclude at around 0130 GMT, he added.

Taiwan lives under the continuous threat of invasion by China, which views its neighbor as a portion of Chinese territory to be reclaimed one day, by strength if required.

China launched its largest-ever war games near Taiwan last week in a fierce reaction to a visit by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, one of the highest-ranking US officials, to visit the self-ruled island in decades.

Taipei’s drills will occur on Tuesday and Thursday and will comprise the deployment of hundreds of armies and about 40 howitzers, the army said.
The island routinely stages military drills forging Chinese aggression and last month rehearsed repelling attacks from the sea in a “joint interception operation” as part of its largest annual exercises.

Lou said Monday the drills were already scheduled and were not being held in response to China’s exercises.

Reacting to Taiwan’s military drills, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin told a media briefing in Beijing on Tuesday that the root cause of the current tensions across the Taiwan Strait is that the DPP (ruling Democratic Progressive Party) authorities have been colluding with foreign forces to seek independence and make provocations.