military drills

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying dumped a string of eight posts on Twitter on Sunday night, ostensibly refuting American criticism that China is “overreacting” to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan. Chinese state media on Monday hailed Hua’s Twitter thread as a “powerful rejection” of the U.S. position.

China’s first operational aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, and its strike group sailed near Japan on Monday and held combat drills in the Western Pacific on Wednesday. 

The navies of Iran, China, and Russia launched a three-day joint maritime drill on Friday in the northern Indian Ocean designed to signal a “common future” between the three nations, Iranian Rear Admiral Mostafa Tajoldini told Iranian state television.

Iran held military drills near its border with Azerbaijan on Tuesday, dismissing complaints from its neighbor by invoking Iranian “sovereignty” and declaring it “will not tolerate the presence of the Zionist regime near our borders.” Azerbaijan is a majority-Muslim nation that has warm relations with Israel, which evidently makes it part of the “Zionist regime” in the eyes of Iran.

Chinese state media boasted of China’s massive military buildup over the weekend while simultaneously claiming Beijing wants nothing more than to renew friendly dialogue with the United States under the Biden administration.

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) used social media on Wednesday to publish a short video clip of Hong Kong air defense drills.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu pledged on Tuesday to hold over 4,000 military drills over the course of 2019, as well as around 8,500 practical combat training events as the Putin regime seeks to shore up its military preparation.

North Korea is continuing to carry out military drills despite ongoing peace negotiations with South Korea and the United States, according to a report Thursday from South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo.

Two Chinese H-6K bombers flew around Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon in what the Chinese military described as a “sacred mission” to defend the “beautiful rivers and mountains of the motherland.” Taiwan saw things very differently, denouncing Chinese “military intimidation.”

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen was on hand for a military drill on Friday, a day after China held the largest naval drill in its history in the disputed waters of the South China Sea. China also indicated this week that it will hold live-fire drills in the Straits of Taiwan.

In a comment the South Korean government later insisted was meant as a joke, Defense Minister Song Young-moo told U.S. Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift that American nuclear submarines were no longer needed to protect South Korea against North Korea, now that the North has opened up and offered to begin denuclearization talks.

North Korea announced on Sunday that it will send a five-member delegation to talks in the border village of Panmunjom on Tuesday, the first formal contact between the two Korean nations in over two years.

President Donald Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in decided in a phone conversation on Thursday to suspend joint U.S.-South Korean military drills during the 2018 Winter Olympics in a diplomatic overture to North Korea, which constantly complains about such exercises.

The Chinese navy began a series of live-fire exercises off the Korean peninsula as tensions over the country’s nuclear ambitions continue to escalate.

General Valery Gerasimov, chief officer of the Russian military, kicked off a meeting with Japanese Defense Minister Itsunori Onodera on Monday by blaming Japan, South Korea, and the United States for increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula with a joint military exercise.

Vietnam condemned Chinese live-fire military drills near disputed islands in the South China Sea this week, but the complaint was dismissed by a Chinese official who implied Hanoi was acting irrationally.

South Korea put on a tremendous show of military force in a set of live-fire drills on Monday, as South Korean intelligence reported signs of activity at North Korean launch sites, possibly indicating more provocative missile launches are coming soon.

The United States and South Korea began the first stage of their regularly scheduled joint military exercise on Monday. This was followed by North Korea’s regularly scheduled threat of nuclear war if the drills proceed as planned.

Japan’s annual defense report is focused on the threat from North Korea, but it also has a good deal to say about China. Those two Japanese concerns converge in a live-fire exercise held by the Chinese Navy off the Korean coast this week, in which dozens of different types of missiles were tested, air intercepts were simulated, ground assaults were practiced, and submarines prowled the waters.

South Korean fighter jets are scheduled to train with two American B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers on Tuesday, a demonstration of cooperation and military power at a moment when questions about the new South Korean administration linger and anger at North Korea is mounting over the murder of American college student Otto Warmbier.

State sponsor of terror Iran and communist China began holding a joint military exercise in the Persian Gulf this week, where provocative clashes between the U.S. Navy and ships from the Islamic Republic have escalated in recent years.

Two venerable annual events are currently in progress on the Korean peninsula: the annual U.S.-South Korean joint military exercise and North Korea threatening to launch a nuclear war because of said exercise.

The Chinese government has advised international media not to “over-interpret” the fact that Taiwan has staged a number of military drills off the coast of China, on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, though the nation’s generals warn any move towards independence will mean war.