Xi makes rare visit to province facing Taiwan following war exercises

President Xi Jinping made a rare visit to a province facing Taiwan following military exercises that mobilized China’s navy, air force, missile force and land troops to simulate a blockade of the self-governing island that is Chinese territory and Beijing threatens to annex by force.

Xi did not comment on the military exercises during his visit to Fujian province, according to the official Xinhua News Agency, but his visit came on the heels of China’s dispatch of a record 125 aircraft, as well as its Liaoning aircraft carrier and ships, in large-scale military exercises surrounding Taiwan and its outlying islands Monday.

According to state broadcaster CCTV, Xi inspected Dongshan county in Fujian on Tuesday afternoon.

The Taiwan-facing island county has served as a regular base for PLA exercises in the past. According to the CCTV report yesterday, Xi inspected work on rural revitalisation, inheriting the Communist Party’s revolutionary tradition and protecting cultural heritage.

Xi has largely avoided public appearances and foreign travel over the past year, but bringing Taiwan under Beijing’s control remains a priority for his administration as head of the ruling Communist Party and its military, the People’s Liberation Army.

Taiwan’s leader Lai Ching-te has been vociferously criticized by Beijing for rejecting the position that Taiwan is a part of China.

The drills came four days after Taiwan celebrated the founding of its government on its “National Day,” when Lai Ching-te said in a speech that China has no right to represent Taiwan and declared his commitment to “resist annexation or encroachment.”

Taiwan split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong’s Communists defeated them in a civil war and took power. MDT/AP