Shi Yi, the spokesman of the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement that was posted to the CCTV Video News Agency YouTube channel on August 11, 2022 that the Eastern Theater Command has recently successfully carried out cross-service exercises in the sea and airspace in the Taiwan Straits, testing its “integrated combat capabilities”. He also said that the theater’s forces will “keep an eye” on the Taiwan Strait and conduct regular combat patrols in order to defend China’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The video of the statement also showed footage of the drills, including footage of missile launches, fighter jets, infantry forces, and naval vessels. Captions on the footage explained that the exercises involved long-range live-fire exercises with conventional missiles, “containment and control” exercises, sea assaults, land strikes, anti-submarine operations, logistical resupply exercises, aerial refueling drills, and the use of stealth fighters.
Shi Yi: "The Eastern Theater Command has recently organized a series of joint military operations involving various types of services and forces in the sea and airspace around the Taiwan Island.
"It has successfully completed various tasks and effectively tested the integrated combat capabilities of the troops.
"Theater forces will keep a close eye on the changes of the situation in the Taiwan Strait, continue to carry out training and preparation for combat, organize regular combat readiness patrols in the direction of the Taiwan Strait, and resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity."
Onscreen text: "The Eastern Theater Command staged joint training exercises in the maritime areas off the northern, southwestern and southeastern coasts of the Taiwan Island and their airspace, conducted long-range live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait and conventional missile tests in the waters off the eastern coast of the island. The drills were focused on joint containment and control, sea assaults, land strikes, air control operations, joint anti-submarine operations, and joint resupply logistics. A batch of new military equipment, such as stealth fighters, box-shaped rocket launchers and the YU-20 refueling tanker aircraft were involved in the exercises."