Overview
- Chinese state television and Xinhua said Eastern Theatre Command units ran simulated confrontation drills near Taiwan, including air blockade and precision-strike training with H-6K bombers and J-10 fighters.
- State media aired footage of practice munitions being dropped and quoted an officer claiming Taiwan’s coastline was visible, but the imagery’s date and location were not specified and remain unverified.
- Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense rejected the claim as a public-opinion operation and reported only three fighters and one support aircraft in its recent tracking, with no heavy-bomber formations or bomb-drop drills near the island.
- Taiwan later reported detecting eight PLA bomber sorties southwest of the island on Thursday, the highest from a single direction in three months, though any link to the televised drills was unclear.
- The H-6K is a long-range strategic bomber capable of carrying large payloads, including nuclear-capable cruise missiles, a factor elevating concern as the disclosure comes days before the Trump–Xi meeting at APEC in South Korea.