China says it has 'successfully completed' military drills around Taiwan

China says it has "successfully completed" three days of military drills around Taiwan, amid boiling tensions between Beijing and Washington over the self-ruled island.

The People's Liberation Army's (PLA) Eastern Command said in a statement on Monday it had "successfully completed" tasks related to its "Joint Sword" drills.

The exercise "comprehensively tested the integrated joint combat ability of multiple military branches under actual combat conditions", the statement read.

One of China's two aircraft carriers — the Shandong — also "participated in today's exercise", the Chinese military said.

Local maritime authorities said on Saturday that the exercises were to include live-fire drills off the rocky coast of China's Fujian province, 190 kilometers from Taipei. The exercises would be held around Pingtan, a south-eastern island that is China's nearest point to Taiwan.

A video published on Monday to the Chinese Eastern Theatre Command's official WeChat account showed a pilot saying he had "arrived near the northern part of Taiwan Island", with missiles "locked into place". Another footage showed an officer's piercing whistle sends military personnel running into position as a simulated barrage on Taiwan unfolds on screen.

Beijing held the exercises in response to Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's meeting with US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week, an encounter it had warned would provoke a strong response. Tsai met McCarthy outside Los Angeles on her way home from a foreign visit.

But China had repeatedly warned against any meeting, and began the latest drills soon after Tsai returned to Taiwan.

Under the internationally accepted "one China" principle, the global community -- the US included -- has agreed that there is officially only one Chinese government.

MG