Russia and China rehearse attacking an 'enemy' submarine in joint naval exercise days after Beijing sent wave of 71 fighter jets towards Taiwan

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Russia and China have completed naval drills in the East China Sea, after a week of joint exercises that included practising how to capture an enemy submarine with depth charges and firing artillery at a warship, Russia's defence ministry said.

The December 21-27 exercises, entitled 'Maritime Interaction-2022', included Russia's Pacific Fleet and were carried out in waters off Zhoushan and Taizhou in China's Zhejiang Province, China's official Xinhua news agency said.

'Detachments of warships of the Pacific Fleet and the Naval Forces of the People's Liberation Army of China have completed practical tasks within the framework of the bilateral naval exercise,' Russia's defence ministry said.

'The ships of the two countries, with the support of anti-submarine aviation, jointly searched for a submarine of a conditional enemy and fired a volley of jet depth charges,' the ministry said.

In this handout photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on December 22, 2022, Chinese warships take part in joint naval drills with Russia in the East China Sea

In this handout photo taken from video released by Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on December 22, 2022, The Chinese destroyer Jinan takes part in joint naval drills with Russia in the East China Sea. The exercise showcases increasingly close defense ties between the two countries as they both face tensions with the United States

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese navy destroyer Jinan, foreground, sails along with Russian navy cruiser Varyag during a joint naval drills in the East China Sea on December 21, 2022

The ministry published video showing a group of Russian and Chinese warships in the East China Sea, with Russian sailors speaking in Mandarin to their Chinese counterparts and Russian ships firing missiles.

Once the leader in the global Communist hierarchy, Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union is now a junior partner to a resurgent China, which already leads in some 21st century technologies.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping is due to speak to President Vladimir Putin before the end of the year, TASS news agency said.

China's military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the self-ruled island, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said Monday.  

The People's Liberation Army said it had conducted a 'strike drill' on Sunday in response to unspecified 'provocations' and 'collusion' between the United States and the self-ruled islands. 

Data from Taiwan's defense ministry showed the drill was one of the largest since they started releasing daily tallies.

Chinese President Xi Jinpin (pictured). China deployed 71 warplanes to skies around Taiwan in a chilling 'strike drill' then blamed the US for 'provocations' and 'collusion' with self-governing island - in one of the biggest daily incursions to date

Forty-seven of the sorties crossed into the island's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the third-highest daily incursion on record, according to AFP's database.

Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the democratic island as part of its territory, to be taken one day.

In September, Biden said during a CBS 60 Minutes interview that US forces would defend Taiwan, 'if in fact, there was an unprecedented attack,' Reuters reported.

The President appeared to go beyond long-standing stated US policy on Taiwan. The US has stuck to a policy of 'strategic ambiguity' - not making clear on whether it would respond with their forces if there was an attack on Taiwan, the news outlet said.

Beijing has ramped up military, diplomatic and economic pressure on Taiwan under President Xi Jinping as relations have deteriorated.

One of the pressure tactics China has increasingly used is probing Taiwan's ADIZ with its warplanes.

So far this year, there have been more than 1,700 such incursions compared with 969 in 2021 and 146 in 2020.

China did not specify the number of aircraft mobilised for Sunday's exercises, nor the exact location of these manoeuvres.

Taiwan's daily tally showed most of the incursions crossed the 'median line' which runs down the Taiwan Strait that separates the two sides, while a smaller number went through Taiwan's southwestern ADIZ.

Many nations maintain air defense identification zones, including the United States, Canada, South Korea, Japan and China.

They are not the same as a country's airspace. Instead, they encompass a much wider area, in which any foreign aircraft is expected to announce itself to local aviation authorities.

Taiwan's ADIZ is much larger than its airspace. It overlaps part of China's ADIZ and even includes some of the mainland.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) said Sunday's exercises were 'a firm response to the escalating collusion and provocations by the US and the Taiwanese authorities'.

A Chinese PLA J-16 fighter jet (pictured) flies in an undisclosed location. China's military sent 71 planes, including J16 fighter jets, and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour display of force directed at the island, Taiwan's defense ministry said Monday after China expressed anger at Taiwan-related provisions in a U.S. annual defense spending bill passed on Saturday

The prospect of a Chinese invasion has increasingly rattled both Western nations and many of China's neighbours.

Xi, China's most authoritarian leader in decades, has made clear what he calls the 'reunification' of Taiwan cannot be passed on to future generations.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has also heightened fears China might try something similar.

The United States has stepped up support for Taiwan including a bill this month that authorized $10 billion in military aid, to which Beijing expressed 'strong opposition'.

Tensions peaked in August during US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip to Taiwan, with the PLA staging huge military drills around the island in protest.

China also threatened to shoot the recently-retired House Speaker's flight down, sparking a tense trip to Asia for the San Francisco representative.

Military flights into the ADIZ are seen as a way to both wear down Taiwan's ageing fleet of fighters as well as probe its defensive responses.

There has also been an increase in sorties by China's nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.

China this month sent a record 18 H-6 bombers into the southwestern ADIZ in the largest daily incursion to date.