Military drills more than simply 'saber rattling'

The People's Liberation Army held live-fire military drills on Wednesday in the Taiwan Straits sending a clear political message to both the island and the world: The Chinese mainland will never allow Taiwan to secede from the motherland.

Those who claim that the drills had been hyped up by Beijing and were just "cheap verbal intimidation" and "saber rattling" fail to appreciate their true portent, that if push comes to shove, China will act to prevent its territory being scraped away.

And the suggestion the drills were aimed at creating unease among Taiwan compatriots falls wide off the mark. Instead, the drills served to reassure them that the Chinese mainland will do whatever it can to protect them from being led astray. For the fault lies not with those who might be taken in by such nonsense but with those whose words seek to deceive them.