The Global Times (July 20) publicised that in response to recent US "consecutive military provocations against China", the People's Liberation Army (PLA) held exercises in all major Chinese sea areas over the past week in moves that military experts said on July 20 could be seen as countermeasures that displayed the PLA's determination and preparedness. Guangdong Province hosted a live-fire exercise on July 20 in waters south to the Pearl River Estuary and the Wanshan Islands, about 300 kilometres from the Dongsha Islands that are currently occupied by Taiwan. It said this was in reaction to a military aircraft from the US landing on the island of Taiwan on July 19, and "Taiwan independence" forces making some fresh secessionist moves, including announcing the establishment of a representative office in Lithuania on Tuesday. Also on July 20, the PLA held joint amphibious landing exercises featuring amphibious armored vehicles of the Army and landing ships of the Navy in waters off East China's Fujian Province, "geographically divided from the island of Taiwan only by the Taiwan Straits". On July 16, the PLA conducted military exercises in the waters off East China's Zhejiang Province in the East China Sea. The PLA Southern Theater Command announced it recently organized a confrontational exercise in the South China Sea featuring multiple types of warplanes, warships, submarines and land-based missiles, a few days after a US Navy destroyer trespassed into the Chinese territorial waters of Xisha in the South China Sea and was expelled by PLA forces on July 12. Military exercises are also being held in the Bohai Strait and the Yellow Sea from July 25 to August 1.  Xu Guangyu, a senior adviser to the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, told the Global Times the US recently increased its military provocations against China with the aim of flexing its muscles in the West Pacific, maintaining its hegemony and lending support to Taiwan secessionists. This met with strong countermeasures from China, including by pointed exercises by the PLA.  Xu Guangyu added that "the US' moves are very risky since it is stepping on China's red lines, and China has to take action".