China carried out assault drills near Taiwan on Aug. 17, with fighter jets, anti-submarine aircraft, and combat ships exercising off the southwest and southeast of the island in what the country’s armed forces said was a response to “external interference.” In a brief statement that was released on Tuesday, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command said the drills were “using actual troops,” and “recent U.S.–Taiwan provocations … severely violated the peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.” Taiwan, which is a de facto independent country but one that the Chinese regime claims as its own, has complained of repeated Chinese military drills in its vicinity in the past two years or so, as part of a pressure campaign to force the island to accept China’s sovereignty. The assault drills are different from those carried out as a matter of routine by the PLA. Tuesday’s drills were held near …