The military labeled reports of Chinese military exercises as "propaganda" yesterday, and urged the public to pay no heed to stories in Chinese and Hong Kong newspapers.
The reports concern an ongoing military exercise by the People's Liberation Army on Fujian Province's Dongshan island.
"The numerous reports about the Dongshan island exercise are intended to affect the psychology of people in Taiwan," said Ministry of National Defense (MND) spokesman Major General Huang Shui-sheng (
"The exercise ... is a regular amphibious drill by the Nanjing Military Region of the Chinese military. Similar exercises have taken place on the island over the past few years," Huang said.
Huang made the remarks at a regular MND press conference in response to inquiries about the exercise, which began in April.
"It is really strange that the state-run newspapers in China and pro-China newspapers in Hong Kong have continued to report on the Dongshan island exercise in such detail. It is nothing more than psychological warfare against Taiwan," Huang said.
A Hong Kong Web-based news agency reported yesterday that two Sovremenny-class destroyers fired two Sunburn anti-ship missiles as part of the exercise.
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