Here, AFP looks at the Taiwan Strait, a critical waterway and growing military flashpoint:
The strait separates the eastern Chinese province of Fujian from the main island of Taiwan, home to around 23 million people.
China and Taiwan have been governed separately since Mao Zedong's communist army won a civil war and sent the opposition nationalist forces fleeing across the strait in 1949.
Why is it important?
Around $2.45 trillion of goods -- more than a fifth of global maritime trade -- transited the strait in 2022, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank.
Analysts say a Chinese invasion would deal a catastrophic blow to these supply chains.
“In the event of a long conflict over Taiwan, financial markets would tank, trade would shrivel, and supply chains would freeze, plunging the global economy into a tailspin,“ Robert A. Manning, a China expert at Washington’s Stimson Center, wrote last year.
An invasion would also endanger Taiwan's way of life, embodied by its democratic freedoms and boisterous elections.
What do we know about the drills?
Beijing said the exercises -- which unlike previous iterations do not have a formal name -- “focus on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority” as well as “assault on maritime and ground targets”.
Taiwan dispatched its own aircraft and ships, and deployed land-based missile systems, in response to the exercises and accused Beijing of being the world’s “biggest troublemaker”.
China has ramped up pressure on Taiwan in recent years and has staged four large-scale military exercises around the island since 2022.
The manoeuvres came after Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te gave a speech on Taiwan's national day that Beijing viewed as a provocative move towards independence.
Taipei military expert Su Tzu-yun told AFP that Tuesday’s drills appeared to be of similar size to the “Joint Sword” exercises in May and October.
Several major crises flared across the strait in preceding decades, most recently in 1995 to 1996 when China conducted missile tests around Taiwan.
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