Chinese military celebrates 95th anniversary; flexes muscles to deter U.S. House Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan

PLA highlighted some of its latest achievements in weaponry realistic combat preparations to warn "Taiwan independence" secessionist and external interfering forces.

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the world’s largest military, on Monday celebrated its 95th anniversary, flexing its muscles to deter U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s purported plan to visit Taiwan that has fuelled tension with Beijing.

Pelosi confirmed on Sunday she will lead a congressional delegation to Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and Japan but was conspicuously silent about a possible stopover at Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as part of its mainland.

The proposed visit drew a fiery warning from President Xi Jinping in his last Thursday’s phone conversation with his U.S. counterpart Joe Biden, asserting that "those who play with fire will perish by it." Beijing sees official American contact with Taiwan as encouragement to make its decades-old de facto independence permanent.

Coinciding with its 95th Army Day celebrations on Monday, the two-million-strong PLA highlighted some of its latest achievements in weaponry and equipment development and realistic combat preparations to warn "Taiwan independence" secessionist and external interfering forces.

The PLA revealed new progress has been made in its advanced weaponry and equipment, including its hypersonic missile, amphibious assault ship, aerial tanker and large destroyers, all of which are described by military analysts as having important roles to play if a conflict breaks out in the Taiwan Straits, state-run Global Times reported on Monday.

State broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) on Saturday released a video titled "The capabilities of the Chinese troops shown in 81 seconds” showing the launch of a DF-17 hypersonic missile from a transporter erector launcher on a highway in a desert.

The missile can hit stationary and moving targets in the South China Sea, the Taiwan Straits and Northeast Asia, including aircraft carriers, Global Times report said.