China caused unease among some countries in the region last month when the carrier the Liaoning, accompanied by several warships, cruised around Taiwan and into the Pacific for what China called routine drills. Earlier this month, Taiwan scrambled fighter jets and navy ships as the Liaoning then passed through the Taiwan Strait. The People’s Daily said no amount of “word bombs,” such as Tillerson’s South China Sea remarks, could stop China’s military drills. “These provocations, pressure, fantasies and over-exaggerations will not prevent the normal drills of the Chinese military,” the paper said in a commentary. In 2015, five Chinese ships carried out exercises in international waters in the Bering Sea off the US state of Alaska.

Source: Taipei Times January 22, 2017 16:05 UTC