China Coast Guard ships are conducting patrols around Taiwan as part of drills near the island, Zhu Anqing, spokesman for the East China Sea Bureau, said.
"On April 1, several Coast Guard vessels organized law enforcement patrols in the waters around the island of Taiwan," Zhu Anqing said in a statement posted on the China Coast Guard’s official WeChat page.
The drill includes practicing inspections, detentions, interceptions and arrests, he added.
The patrols being conducted are "a practical action to control the island of Taiwan, carried out in accordance with the law and based on the one-China principle," he said.
"Taiwan is a province of China," Zhu Anqing emphasized.
Earlier, the PLA Eastern Theater Command announced the start of large-scale drills around Taiwan. Land, missile, naval and air forces are taking part.
The Chinese army is practicing combat patrols, striking targets at sea and on land, and blocking transportation links and key locations of a suspected enemy.
Taiwan has been governed by its own administration since 1949, when the remnants of the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled there after their defeat in the Chinese Civil War.
Since then, Taiwan has retained the flag and some other attributes of the former Republic of China that existed on the mainland before the Communists took power.
Official Beijing considers Taiwan a province of the People’s Republic of China.
