The drills, conducted by the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, began on Monday and are scheduled to last two days. Late on Monday evening, the PLA published multiple videos portraying different aspects of the exercises, highlighting air, naval and ground operations around the island.
One 13-second video, released via the official “China Military” social media account, shows a drone’s aerial view of Taipei 101 and surrounding buildings. The footage also captures an aircraft passing through the frame, believed to be a civilian passenger plane departing from either Taoyuan International Airport or Taipei Songshan Airport.
Additional videos released by the Eastern Theater Command include air force footage set to upbeat music, showing fighter jets conducting aerial refuelling, pilots filming themselves inside cockpits, and on-screen captions referring to operations “over Taiwan Province”. The video also features distant aerial views of Taiwan and the island’s central mountain range.
On Tuesday, the Eastern Theater Command said PLA ground forces had carried out live-fire, long-range precision strikes in waters to the north of Taiwan, adding that the exercises had achieved their intended results.
According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, further live-fire drills are scheduled to take place between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. on Tuesday across five designated maritime and airspace zones surrounding Taiwan.
The latest drills form part of a broader pattern of large-scale PLA military activities around Taiwan, often accompanied by high-profile video releases, which Beijing says are aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
