China Holds Joint Air, Land And Sea Military Exercises
China Holds Joint Air, Land And Sea Military Exercises
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China has launched joint army, air force and naval military exercises in four major command areas to better coordinate forces under modern battle conditions, state press reported Friday.
The joint exercises, which began on Wednesday, are aimed at simulating modern battle conditions where regional commanders deploy land, sea and air forces using advanced information technology, the China Daily reported.
The exercises began just after Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian scrapped unification guidelines with the mainland on Tuesday, a move that Beijing said would endanger peace in the Taiwan Strait and Asia-Pacific region.
However the state press did not link the exercises to the heightened cross-strait tensions.
According to the People's Liberation Army Daily, the exercises were being carried out separately in the Shenyang, Guangzhou, Beijing and Chengdu military command regions.
Photos posted on official government websites showed navy transport ships carrying tanks and armoured personnel carriers and the vehicles disembarking from the ships onto beaches.
Since nationalist armies fled to Taiwan following their civil war defeat to communist forces in 1949, China has viewed the island as a renegade province to be reunified, by force if necessary.
Beijing has insisted that formal Taiwan independence would mean war and has strongly warned Taiwan's President Chen from making any moves in that direction.
