China’s military launched large-scale drills around Taiwan Tuesday to send a “severe warning” and a message of “forceful containment against Taiwan independence,” Beijing officials said. 

Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had tracked 19 Chinese navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday. The exercises – which involved Chinese navy, air, ground and rocket forces – were unannounced. 

“China’s blatant military provocations not only threaten peace in the Taiwan Strait but also undermine security in the entire region, as evidenced by drills near Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Philippines and the South China Sea,” Taiwan’s Presidential Office wrote on X. “We strongly condemn China’s escalatory behavior.” 

Taiwan defense officials added that they had been tracking the movement of China’s Shandong aircraft carrier since Saturday and that its carrier group had entered into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone on Monday. In response, Taiwan dispatched military aircraft and ships and activated land-based missile systems, according to Reuters. 

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“I want to say these actions amply reflect (China’s) destruction of regional peace and stability,”  Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo said. 

China’s Xinhua News Agency said the Eastern Theater Command on Tuesday conducted “multi-subject drills in waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island.” 

The theater command “organized its vessel and aircraft formations, in coordination with conventional missile troops and long-range rocket launching systems, to conduct drills of air interception, assault on maritime targets, strikes on ground objects, and joint blockade and control,” Xinhua quoted the command as saying. 

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A military jet lands at Hsinchu Air Base in Hsinchu, Taiwan, on April 1. (Reuters/Annabelle Chih)

The exercises were “aimed at testing the troops’ capabilities of carrying out integrated operations, seizure of operational control and multi-directional precision strikes, the command said. 

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office also said the exercises were directed at Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s strongly pro-independence president. 

This image released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense shows China’s Shandong aircraft carrier sailing near Taiwan on Monday, March 31.  (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)

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“Lai Ching-te stubbornly insists on a ‘Taiwan independence’ stance, brazenly labeling the mainland as a ‘foreign hostile force,’ and has put forward a so-called “17-point strategy … stirring up anti-China sentiments,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said in a statement. “We will not tolerate or condone this in any way and must resolutely counter and severely punish these actions.” 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.