China is seriously preparing for the invasion of Taiwan, according to Grant Newsham, a retired Marine colonel and senior research fellow at the Japan Forum for Strategic Studies.
China reportedly sent 42 warplanes and eight naval vessels toward Taiwan on April 8 in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s meeting with U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on April 5 in California.
Beijing’s actions came as the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military announced on April 8 that it was beginning three days of combat readiness patrols and “Joint Sword” exercises around Taiwan, involving police patrols.
During the drills, dozens of Chinese warplanes were spotted crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ.
Even on April 11, after its three-day military exercises, the regime’s provocative military actions continued.
“They’ve effectively said that this mutually agreed-upon demarcation line down the middle of the Taiwan Strait … doesn’t matter, and [they] don’t recognize it, and they are now flying their aircraft across it all the time,” Newsham recently told “China in Focus” on NTD, The Epoch Times’ sister media outlet.
Read more: China Seriously Preparing to Invade Taiwan: Former Marine Colonel
