The People's Liberation Army announced on Thursday morning that it started two-day joint military drills surrounding the island of Taiwan from 7:45 am Thursday.

In a brief statement, the PLA's Eastern Theater Command declared that the exercise would take place in the Taiwan Strait, the north, south and east of Taiwan Island, as well as areas around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin.

In another concurrently released statement, Li Xi, spokesperson for the theater command, emphasized that the exercises serve as a "strong punishment" against the separatist acts of the "Taiwan independence" forces and a "stern warning" to interference and provocation by external forces.

He said the drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, scheduled from Thursday to Friday, will involve military services including the army, navy, air force and rocket force of the theater command.

The exercises focus on practicing joint maritime and aerial combat readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive battlefield control, and joint precision strikes of key targets, Li said.

The spokesman added that the drills involve the patrol of vessels and planes closing in on areas around the island of Taiwan and integrated operations inside and outside the island chain to test the joint real combat capabilities of theater command forces.