Two large-scale military drills close to the Taiwan Strait commenced on July 28 in  waters off the coast of eastern China’s Zhejiang province and another set of military exercises are being held from July 29 till August 2., 2019. China's Ministry of National Defence (MND) two weeks ago had described these as part of a “routine drill on the southeast coast”.  Observers expect PLA forces from the Southern and Eastern Commands – whose area of responsibility includes Zhejiang and Fujian, which lie opposite Taiwan – to take part in the exercises. Song Zhongping, a military commentator based in Hong Kong, said: “The main goal of the drills is to practise how to effectively maintain control of the sea and the air amid growing foreign interference in Taiwan affairs…and serve as a warning to foreign forces that the PLA has the resolve to [achieve reunification] with Taiwan.” Lu Li-Shih, a former instructor at the naval academy in Taiwan, said the passage of the Hulun Lake, one of the PLA’s new Type 901 fast combat support ships, and other warships through the Miyako Strait in the East China Sea on Thursday suggested that the Liaoning, China’s only fully operational aircraft carrier, may also take part in the exercises.

(Comment: This is the first war game to involve simultaneous exercises at two locations in the waters near Taiwan since the 1995–1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis, during which the PLA conducted a series of large-scale live-fire exercises in response to then Taiwanese leader Lee Teng-hui’s visit to the US and ahead of the Taiwanese presidential election.)