SpaceWar.com reports: “China’s military drills around Taiwan this week aim to send a clear message to the island’s leadership, analysts say — in the event of war, Beijing can cut them off from the outside world and grind them into submission.

And while previous drills have sought to test Taipei’s response times to Chinese incursion, Beijing says this week’s exercises are focused on its ability to strike key targets such as ports and energy facilities on the island.

‘Taiwan is vulnerable from an energy point of view and China is playing up that vulnerability,’ Dylan Loh at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University told AFP.

The air and sea around the self-ruled island have swarmed with Chinese jets and warships in what Beijing has dubbed its ‘Strait Thunder’ exercises — punishment, it said, for the separatist designs of Taiwan’s ‘parasite’ leader Lai Ching-te.

The drills are located in the middle and southern parts of the Taiwan strait — a vital artery for global shipping.

The island also imports nearly all of its energy supply and relies heavily on food imports, meaning in the event of a war, a blockade could paralyse the island — a fact Beijing is keen to press…”