China's Defense Ministry said the drills were a response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's refusal to concede to Beijing's demands that Taiwan acknowledge itself as a part of the People's Republic of China under the rule of the Communist Party

Taiwan's Defense Ministry called the drills a provocation and said its forces were prepared to respond

The PLA's Eastern Theater Command spokesperson Navy Senior Captain Li Xi said the navy, army air force, missile corps were all mobilised for the drills

"This is a major warning to those who back Taiwan independence and a signifier of our determination to safeguard our national sovereignty," Li said in a statement on the service's public media channel

Taiwan was a Japanese colony before being unified with China at the end of World War II

It split away in 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists fled to the island as Mao Zedong's Communists swept to power on the mainland

Lai took office in May, continuing the eight-year rule of the Democratic Progressive Party that rejects China's demand that it recognize Taiwan is a part of China

China routinely states that Taiwan independence is a "dead end" and that annexation by Beijing is a historical inevitability

China's latest military incursion around Taiwan is seen as part of a broader pattern of provocations that have intensified in recent months. The Chinese government has carried out regular air and naval incursions into Taiwan's ADIZ, as well as military exercises close to the island