The Facts
On Saturday, China's Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army announced that it had launched combat readiness patrols and military drills around Taiwan. The exercises — codenamed United Sharp Sword — are scheduled to last until Monday.
United Sharp Sword reportedly includes a long-range rocket unit from the Eastern Theater Command, destroyers, frigates, missile boats, fighter jets, bombers, and electronic warfare planes.
The Spin
Pro-China narrative
Taiwan secessionist forces and their foreign allies have gone too far in their attempts to undermine China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, prompting Beijing to respond powerfully to the provocative and completely unacceptable meeting between Tsai and McCarthy. The ongoing drills are needed to make rebels lay down weapons and resolve the dispute peacefully.
Anti-China narrative
Beijing should know better than to engage in intimidation and saber-rattling, especially as such behavior can only backfire and firm up US support for Taiwan. Taipei and Washington have focused exclusively on deterrence policies to ensure peace around the Taiwan Strait as well as freedom and democracy in the island nation, so if China really wants peace, it shouldn't push for conflict.
