Exercises held since May by the Chinese military on Dongshan island across the Taiwan Strait are to continue on a smaller scale compared to the previous two months, according to defense sources.
But there is still a possibility that the exercises will change more if China's military leadership makes further decisions in an upcoming meeting at Beidaihe.
"Such possibilities are pretty low since the Chinese leadership will not consider intimidating Taiwan with military force at a time when the country is bathed in joy over winning the bid to host the 2008 Olympic Games," a defense official said.
"The resolutions to be made by the Chinese leadership at the Beidaihe meeting are very likely to be less about politics than about economy," the official said.
"Now that China is to host the 2008 Olympics it will not have too much money left for the military to hold large-scale exercises," he said.
The Dongshan exercises are held regularly, the official said, but they may expand to large-scale exercises depending on decisions from China's leadership.
Dongshan island sits off the Fujian Province facing Taiwan across the Strait. It was the site of large-scale amphibious exercises by China's military during the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis.
The island exercises have been closely monitored by the Taiwan military since May as the People's Liberation Army (PLA) started concentrating troops in Fujian Province.
Dongshan has been the PLA's national training center for the last year. Before June, the PLA sent only elite troops to train on Dongshan for amphibious landing exercises, defense sources say.
Between June and October, the PLA will send a second echelon of troops to train on the island for amphibious landing exercises.
The training exercises could be turned into military action against Taiwan because of the large number of troops already concentrating in Fujian Province.
Intelligence information shows the PLA units mobilized for the training exercises on the island are not as well trained as they were expected to be.
Some units had to cancel their training missions because of lack of sufficient personnel to participate in the maneuvers.
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