Two Su-35 fighter jets and an H-6K bomber fly in formation on May 11, 2018. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force conducted patrol training over China's island of Taiwan.(Photo: Xinhua)

 
Just one day after the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) sent 38 war planes for exercises near the island of Taiwan on Friday, which also marks National Day, the PLA dispatched 39 aircraft over the island's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone. This has consecutively broken the previous record of the scale of exercises in this area. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities in the island were shocked once again, while public opinion in the US and the West continue to speculate on the move.

The PLA has done an excellent job! This can be seen as a form of the National Day military parade in the Taiwan Straits, which used to be held at the Tiananmen Square in Beijing. It is a clear and unmistakable declaration of China's sovereignty over the island. This is apt given the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, greatly encouraging people nationwide, and highlighted and emphasized to a new height the special significance of the National Day.

The 38 and 39 warplanes dispatched in two consecutive days to the exercise during the day and night near the island of Taiwan were not a guard of honor. They are fighting forces aimed at actual combat. The increase in the number of aircraft showed the PLA Air Force's operational capabilities. The warplanes that gathered over the Straits were possibly dispatched from different airports, showing the strong ability of the PLA to form a wartime air attack. 

According to statistics from Taiwan island, the PLA has sent warplanes into the island's "airspace" in 198 days so far this year. Such a number reflects that the PLA has carried out wide-ranged and profound operations to familiarize itself with battlefield conditions, with a large number of PLA Air Force units having experience flying close to the island. Once the order to attack is given, the PLA's pilots will fight as "experienced veterans."

The DPP authorities have violated the 1992 consensus and are recklessly in pursuit of secessionism. They are willing to act as an anti-China chess piece in conjunction with the US, and thus has pushed the Straits situation to the brink. They have constantly hyped up claims that they are at the forefront of the so-called democratic world to resist "authoritarian rule." They have thus turned themselves into a block that the Chinese mainland must get rid of strategically and an evil force the mainland must crush.

The PLA is forming a siege of Taiwan with a show of strength as it did in Beijing in 1949. There is no doubt about the future of the situation across the Taiwan Straits. The initiative of when and how to solve the Taiwan question is firmly in the hands of the Chinese mainland.