The guided-missile frigate Tongling (Hull 629) attached to a frigate flotilla with the navy under the PLA Southern Theater Command sails through the wind and waves during a maritime training exercise in mid-January, 2022. (eng.chinamil.com.cn/Photo by Li Zhengsong)

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) recently conducted simultaneous exercises in three major sea regions in a move experts said on Thursday displayed the Chinese military's combat preparedness after the US and Japan held massive, troublemaking exercises along the first island chain near the island of Taiwan as the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics started.

In the East China Sea, the Type 052C destroyer Changchun, the Type 052D destroyer Xiamen and the Type 054A frigate Yiyang attached to the PLA Eastern Theater Command Navy carried out realistic combat exercises with multiple training courses, including air defense, maneuvering and main gun live-fire shooting, China Central Television (CCTV) reported on Wednesday.

In the South China Sea, the Type 903 comprehensive supply ship Weishanhu and the hospital ship You'ai attached to the PLA Southern Theater Command Navy held maritime drills, including search and rescue, maritime replenishment and live-fire shooting, CCTV reported.

In the Yellow Sea, the Northern Theater Command Navy organized a maritime-aerial multidimensional comprehensive rescue exercise, practicing damage control, minesweeping and search and rescue, the report said.

The PLA also sent two J-16 fighter jets, a Y-8 electronic warfare aircraft, a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and a Y-8 electronic intelligence aircraft to the island of Taiwan's self-proclaimed southwest air defense identification zone on Wednesday, according to the defense authority on the island.

The reports on the PLA drills come after the US and Japan held the Noble Fusion 2022 exercise between February 3 and Monday.

Led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, about 15,000 US sailors and marines and another 1,000 members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces took part in the drill, which encompassed a wide swath of the first island chain, stretching from the Luzon Strait to the Miyako Strait, including Okinawa and the East China Sea, US military newspaper the Stars and Stripes reported on Wednesday.

These locations are particularly sensitive, since they essentially cover the waters to the east of the island of Taiwan, making the drills by the US and Japan very provocative to China, observers pointed out.

The US and Japan kept on holding military drills and creating tensions despite the Beijing Winter Olympics, during which the Olympic Truce is applied and atmosphere of peace should be fostered, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert and TV commentator, told the Global Times on Thursday.

This is not only a serious threat to China's national security, but also to world peace and stability, Song said, noting that the US is also rallying its NATO allies for drills in Europe.

China predicted the US and its allies' military exercises and training around China during the Winter Games, with Senior Colonel Wu Qian, a spokesperson at China's Ministry of National Defense, saying at a routine press conference on January 27 that the Chinese military would be fully prepared for any external provocation and contingency.

The PLA's latest drills demonstrated that China is ready to deal with those threats, Song said.