No live-fire detected in latest PLA drills around Taiwan: MND

Taipei, April 1 (CNA) The latest round of People's Liberation Army (PLA) joint military drills around Taiwan which started early Tuesday is part of China's ongoing "gray zone" harassment of the country, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND) said Tuesday, adding that it has so far detected no signs of live-fire exercises.

At an emergency press event to make public Taiwan's response to the latest round of drills that began at 7:30 a.m., the MND said it had detected 13 PLA naval vessels, four coast guard vessels, and 71 military aircraft, operating around Taiwan as of Tuesday afternoon.

Among the 71, 36 crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, said Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升), head of the MND's Office of Deputy Chief of General Staff for Intelligence, during the press briefing.

On the east of Taiwan, Hsieh said the military has identified an 8-vessel naval fleet led by the Shandong aircraft carrier operating in the Pacific Ocean around 220 nautical miles southeastern off Cape Eluanbi in southern Taiwan.

None of the PLA warplanes and warships detected during the ongoing drills have entered the nation's contiguous zone, an area that is adjacent to territorial sea and airspace and extends a maximum distance of 24 nautical miles from the coast, he said, when asked by reporters how close the Chinese military were.

Taiwan's armed forces have also not yet detected live-fire drills by the PLA forces, he said, adding that the military has no way to predict when the latest round of exercises will conclude, when asked about the duration of the PLA drills.

Hsieh said Taiwan's military sees the PLA's ongoing drills as part of China's years-long "gray zone" harassment of the country.

Gray zone activities refer to actions that involve ambiguous or nontraditional methods that aim to achieve strategic objectives without overtly crossing the threshold into open conflict.

Meanwhile, speaking at the same press briefing, Major General Tung Chi-hsing (董冀星), director of the joint operations planning division under the MND, said the armed forces have established an ad hoc emergency operations center and deployed military aircraft, vessels and coastal missile systems following the PLA's announcement of drills early Tuesday.

Currently, Taiwan's military is conducting patrols and monitoring Chinese troops, he said.

The armed forces will adjust their combat readiness level based on the level of the PLA threats accordingly, he added.

The PLA's Eastern Theater Command announced on Tuesday morning the beginning of a new round of joint exercises around Taiwan, featuring the army, navy, air and rocket forces to "close in" on Taiwan in "multiple directions," according to PLA Eastern Command spokesperson Shi Yi (施毅).

The exercises served as "a stern warning" to "Taiwan independence" separatist forces, according to China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

As of 3 p.m., the PLA's Eastern Theater Command said it had conducted drills in waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, featuring "air interception, assault on maritime targets, strikes on ground objects, and joint blockade and control."

These drills were aimed at testing troops capabilities in terms of carrying out integrated operations, seizure of operational control, and multi-directional precision strikes, the theater command added.