BEIJING, June 8 -- Senior Colonel Shi Yi, spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), said on Friday that the PLA Eastern Theater Command has recently organized joint combat-readiness security patrols and combat training exercises involving troops of multiple services and arms in the waters and airspace around Taiwan Island.
Shi pointed out that the recent moves by the US side on the Taiwan question to bolster the "Taiwan independence" separatist forces are totally futile and result in nothing but only disturb peace across the Taiwan Strait and escalate the regional tension.
He stressed that Taiwan is a part of China. Troops of the PLA Eastern Theater Command stay on high alert at all times, keep strengthening military training for war preparedness, and will firmly safeguard national sovereignty and security as well as regional peace and stability, and resolutely smash any "Taiwan independence" plot.