Taiwan tells China: we're not scared

China has launched a new round of military drills near Taiwan, having previously announced they were ending on Sunday. The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said it was ‘continuing joint training under real war conditions, focused on organising joint anti-submarine warfare and naval strikes’. A social media account of the nationalist tabloid Global Times said exercises around Taiwan might continue, since the summer is a popular drill season for the PLA.

Taiwan said it was closely monitoring the exercises, but that so far Monday no Chinese ships or aircraft had entered its territorial waters. Joseph Wu, Taiwan’s foreign minister, said in an interview with the American broadcaster CNN that the island was not scared, even though the threat from China was ‘more serious than ever’. He vowed to stand firm to protect Taiwan’s freedom and democracy.