China is holding military drill near Taiwan - The Hindu/ China begins military drill near Taiwan coast

• China is conducting military exercises off its coast opposite Taiwan after warning Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives to scrap plans to visit Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of its territory.

Key Highlights

• People’s Liberation Army conducted “live-fire exercises” near Pingtan islands off Fujian province.
• Speaker of U.S. House of Representatives would be the highest-ranking American elected official to visit Taiwan since 1997.
• Chinese President warned his U.S. counterpart against “external interference” in Beijing’s dealings with the island.
• China says Taiwan has no right to conduct foreign relations.
• It sees visits by American officials as encouragement for island to make its decades-old de facto independence official.

China and Taiwan

• PLA has flown growing numbers of fighter planes and bombers near Taiwan and has in the past fired missiles into shipping lanes to the island.
• Taiwan and China split in 1949 after a civil war that ended with a communist victory on the mainland.
• The two governments say they are one country but disagree over which is entitled to national leadership.
• They have no official relations but are closely linked by trade and investment.

Prelims take away

• Locaion based question