CHINA has vowed to "spill blood from the heads of Taiwanese forces" in its latest unprecedented threat towards the self-governing island.
Dozens of warplanes filled the skies above Taiwan and an armada stormed towards its shores as China launched unprecedentedly large World War Three invasion drills on Thursday.
Beijing said the mock invasion of its island neighbour was a "punishment" for its new president's so-called "declaration of war" speech.
A spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs office said in a statement that China will take action to "resolutely crush" any separatist plot if Taiwan pro-independence forces insist on going their own way or taking risks.
China hopes Taiwan will work with the mainland to oppose independence separatism and interference from external forces, said spokesperson Chen Binhua.
Putin accused of surrounding himself with same 'actors' at series of events
Early this morning, China encircled Taiwan and other Taipei-controlled islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin as part of the "Joint Sword 2024A" exercises.
Taiwan has condemned the military drills - which are tagged as "A" in an apparent warning of potential follow-ups - as "irrational provocations".
It quickly mobilised its naval, air and ground forces to "defend the island's sovereignty," the defence ministry said.
The defiant island has scrambled jets and even placed missile units on high alert.
Four fighter jets took off at around 1pm (5am GMT) from a military airbase in Hsinchu, an hour southwest of Taipei, while the city's coast guard warned off Chinese vessels.
The defence ministry said in a late afternoon press briefing that it had detected 15 Chinese warships and 16 coast guard vessels around Taiwan, while 33 warplanes had "entered our response zone".
The closest distance they got to Taiwan was about 24 nautical miles (44 kilometres), said senior intelligence official Huang Wen-chi, adding that the military has "not detected any use of live ammunition".
Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said China's exercises were "destructive" to regional peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Joint Force appears to be yet another forceful attempt to intimidate Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, and is scheduled to last for two days.
China's foreign ministry today called its exercises a "necessary and legitimate move" and demanded the US stop supporting and encouraging "Taiwan independence" forces.
Russia suffers deadliest day of war so far as Ukraine strike 'kills hundreds'
China's military said the drills are focusing on joint sea-air combat-readiness patrols, precision strikes on key targets, and integrated operations inside and outside the island chain to test the "joint real combat capabilities" of the forces.
"This is also a strong punishment for the separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces," the command added.
Chinese state media published a map of the drill zones, in five areas all around Taiwan and the islands Taiwan controls near the Chinese coast.
The drills come just three days after Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te took office - a man Beijing detests as a "troublemaker separatist".
Lai's Democratic Progressive party (DPP), which rejects China's territorial claims to the island, secured a third term in January - a win that set Tepei on a greater collision course with Beijing.
China furiously denounced Lai's inauguration speech on Monday, in which he called on China to stop its threats and argued the two sides of the strait were "not subordinate to each other".
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi responded by calling Lai "disgraceful".
Victor Gao, chair professor at Soochow University in China, declared his speed a "declaration of war" and a "watershed" moment in Taipei-Beijing relations.
He warned: "China wants to show that if Lai still wants to take the path of Taiwan independence... it can make Taiwan collapse without a war within a week or two."
Earlier in the day during a visit to a military base, Lai said he would "stand on the front line... to jointly defend national security".
"At this moment the international community is paying a lot of attention to democratic Taiwan," the president said in a speech that did not directly reference the Chinese drills.
"Faced with external challenges and threats, we will continue to defend the values of freedom and democracy, and safeguard peace and stability in the region."
Taiwan's foreign minister warned on Sunday once again that his nation was preparing for war as China was stockpiling weapons for an invasion.
Analysts have long feared Xi Jinping is waiting for the right moment to lurch across the Taiwan strait and submit the small island nation to the will of the People’s Republic.
He promised to take it by force if necessary.
Taiwan insists it is an independent nation after splitting from mainland China amid civil war in 1949.
Self-ruled Taiwan is separated by a narrow 180-kilometre (110-mile) strait from China, which has said it would never renounce the use of force to bring the island under Beijing's control.
Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at Taiwanese think tank, the Institute for National Defence and Security Research, said that drills were far larger than previous exercises.
This time they included Taiwan's outlying islands.
Taipei's coast guard said it had encountered Chinese ships around the Taiwan-administered outlying islands of Dongyin and Wuqiu early Thursday morning.
Two Chinese coast guard ships had sailed into the "restricted waters of Dongyin" at 7:48 am, while another was outside the restricted zone to "provide support", Taipei's coast guard said.
The ships left waters off Dongyin -- around 160 kilometres from Taiwan's northern tip -- about an hour later.
Another two Chinese ships were detected around Wuqiu, about 130 kilometres from Taiwan's western coast, "entering restricted waters", with a third outside the restricted area, the coast guard said. The vessels left at around 8:45 am.
Footage released by the coast guard showed Taiwanese officers ordering Chinese ships to leave over a loudspeaker.
"Your movements affect our country's order and safety, please turn away and leave our restricted waters as soon as possible," an officer said, according to the coast guard video.
"Leave right away, leave right away!"
The incidents near Dongyin and Wuqiu marked the seventh time this month that Chinese vessels breached Taiwan's restricted waters.
"This is designed to demonstrate China's ability to control the seas and prevent the involvement of foreign forces, he said.
"The political signals here are greater than the military ones."
For years now, the world has watched anxiously as China ramped up its military drills and menacing provocations towards Taiwan and the US responded by increasing commitments to its faraway ally.
China declared earlier this year that they will never give up their claim to the island, while the said it would "never back down" on the issue.
In Xi’s chilling New Year address he stated that Taiwan’s “reunification” with the “motherland” is a “historical inevitability”.
Observers believe Beijing may try to "strangle" the island using a blockade - while others suggest it will launch a large-scale military landing on Taiwan's "red beaches".
In August 2022, China launched live-fire military exercises around Taiwan immediately after a visit by former US House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
That series of exercises, the scale of which was unprecedented, lasted for four days, followed by several days of additional drills.
Taiwan is feared to be a major flashpoint between Washington and Beijing - with a potential invasion forcing the US to abandon the island or face a full-scale war with China that could spiral into World War 3.
