CHINA has stepped up the militarisation of its southeast coast near Taiwan as tensions across the Taiwan Strait mounts.
Chinese military sources said the People's Liberation Army has been upgrading its missile bases and has deployed its most advanced hypersonic missile, the DF-17, to the area.
The new missile is said to have a longer range, up to 2,500km, and is able to hit targets more accurately.
Relations between Beijing and Taipei have deteriorated since Tsai Ing-wen was elected as Taiwan president in 2016.
The pro-Independence leader has refused to accept the one-China principle.
The change in Beijing's military strategy comes as Taiwan and the United States are edging closer, including US health secretary Alex Azar's visit to the island in August.
He was the highest-ranking American official to visit Taiwan in 41 years.
China regards Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes the US official ties with Taipei, saying it violates the one-China principle.
According to a South China Morning Post report, the deployment of missiles on the coasts of Fujian and Zhejiang provinces also comes as Taipei signed a series of arms deals with the US, including for Patriot missiles and an upgrade to its F-16 Viper jets.
Satellite images show that both the Marine Corps and Rocket Force bases in Fujian and Guangdong provinces have expanded in recent years, according to Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of the Canada-based Kanwa Defence Review.
"Every rocket force brigade in Fujian and Guangdong is now fully equipped," he said.
China has also moved its Marine Corps headquarters to the region in 2017 and 10 out of its 13 Marine brigades are now based there.
Chang also said the PLA had deployed its Russian-built S-400 air-defence system that could detect and shoot down missiles, drones and jets from up to 600km away to defend against any attack by the Taiwanese air force.
The PLA's coastal defences also include 20 air force brigades – some of them armed with the country's first stealth warplane, the J-20.
Beijing has sought to keep up the pressure on Taiwan with a series of exercises around the island, including a large-scale invasion drill recently and multiple air sorties that saw almost 40 fighters crossing the median line in the Taiwan Strait last month.
Meanwhile, Taiwan is seeking a clarity in US security commitment to the island nation in the event of hostilities with China.
"We need some degree of clarity," said Hsiao Bi-khim from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Washington.
Speaking to the Washington Post, the de-facto ambassador said though Taiwan does not believe China is preparing for a "full-scale military attack," there is "a risk of accident or miscalculation."
He said there needs to be a clear "position that military force is not tolerated and that there are multiple stakeholders in the region that want to jointly assure stability and peace."
The US-Taiwan security relationship has been purposely ambiguous for four decades.
But amid increasing Chinese threats of invasion, America's commitment to Taiwan needs to be clearer, Hsiao said.
However according to the South China Morning Post report, some analysts see China's move as a new strategy to carefully step up military pressure but not to the point of provoking a war.
US think tank Rand senior defence analyst Derek Grossman said China's escalating military activities were designed, in large part, to disorient Taiwanese leaders and complicate decision-making and reaction times.
"The ramp-up in Chinese military activity is also designed to frighten Taiwan into submission and to gather intelligence, such as on response times of Taiwanese jet fighters scrambled to intercept Chinese military aircraft," he said.