China conducted rare military drills in four regions, including the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea, as the US envoy to Taiwan attended a military memorial service with Taiwan’s president. Dr Collin Koh, a Research Fellow from the RSIS said China is trying to make a not-so-subtle point with the military exercises. “Operationally, it’s to showcase the PLA’s ability to carry out major mobilization of forces for training across multiple sea areas — which also highlights that the PLA isn’t affected in any way by the pandemic,” he told the South China Morning Post.