China’s navy drills in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen transiting by way of the US are on par with the response seen by Beijing final 12 months, Taiwan’s international minister stated Monday, feedback that come because the People’s Liberation Army held a 3rd day of workout routines.

Read right here: Taiwan detects 11 Chinese warships, 59 aircraft around island: Defence ministry

“If you compare the two sets of military drills, I will say the one in August last year to be more intense,” Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu stated in an interview with Bloomberg News Monday, referring to Beijing’s whole response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visiting the island.

“So altogether, it was a more serious one at the time, but this time around, if you look at the intensity of their air threat, or naval threat against Taiwan, I think it’s similar to what we saw at the time.”

Last summer time, the PLA not solely carried out air and sea workout routines but additionally fired missiles over the island, launched cyber assaults and used financial coercion in response to Pelosi’s journey, Wu added.

Tsai final week transited the US and met with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. She additionally acquired a US congressional delegation in Taipei over the weekend upon her return from the US. The Biden administration has urged China to chorus from growing tensions and utilizing the transit as a pretext to alter the established order within the strait.

Wu additionally criticized Beijing for locating “excuses” to launch navy workout routines and stated the acts can’t be tolerated.

“We need to prevent China from having the illusion that they can take Taiwan over quickly,” he stated. “And therefore we need to speed up Taiwan’s preparedness and we’ve been doing that.”

Read right here: China simulated strikes against ‘key targets on Taiwan’: Report

The nationalist Global Times newspaper cited Zhao Xiaozhuo, a analysis fellow on the Academy of Military Sciences, as saying that the PLA is training focusing on key navy targets together with airfields and different buildings through the drills.