Bringing the self-governed province back in line with mainland China has been a goal of Xi's for a long time and recent military activity has shown that China is ready to take it back by force.
China's potential live-fire drills were a shock to Australian authorities who reportedly only learned about these exercises from surprised commercial pilots, Defense Minister Richard Marles revealed on Friday.
CHINA has launched shock war drills near Australia and New Zealand forcing flights to dramatically divert.
Despite New Zealand's comments, Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the Chinese fleet had sent an alert saying they could run live-fire exercises in the area.
But China claims Taiwan remains a part of its territory with which it must eventually be reunified - and has not ruled out the use of force to take the island and place it under Beijing's control.
