By Faith Hung and Ben Blanchard
TAIPEI/BEIJING (Reuters) - Taiwan expressed serious concern on Thursday over a Chinese state media broadcast of military live fire exercises and landing drills, just days after a landslide election win by an independence-leaning opposition party in Taiwan.
China considers Taiwan a wayward province, to be brought under its control by force if necessary. Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after the Chinese civil war.
Late on Wednesday, state television's military channel said the 31st Group Army, based in China's southeastern city of Xiamen situated opposite Taiwan, had carried out the drills in "recent days".
It did not give an exact location.
The channel broadcast images of amphibious armoured vehicles ploughing through the sea towards a landing site, helicopters firing missiles at shore locations and soldiers parachuting down from helicopters.
The report made no direct mention of the Taiwan election. China's Defence Ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
"This is very bad news," said Steve Lin, first deputy minister of Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council. "We have been really concerned about China's military moves and threats."
He added, "We'll raise our military deployment, and at the same time we'll deal with it via reasonable dialogue with the Chinese side. After all, it's both sides' responsibility to maintain peace across the Taiwan Strait."
Taiwan's Defence Ministry said it was "aware of the information", and declined further immediate comment.
Xiamen is located opposite Taiwan, and right off Xiamen's coast is Kimnen, an island controlled by Taiwan since 1949 and until the late 1970s a place regularly shelled by China.
Since Saturday's landslide win by Tsai Ing-wen and her Democratic Progressive Party in Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections, China has warned against any moves towards independence and that it will defend the country's sovereignty.
Tsai has said she will maintain peace with China, and Chinese state-run media have also noted her pledges to maintain the "status quo" with China.
The past eight years had been marked by calm between China and Taiwan, after the election of the China-friendly Ma Ying-jeou as president in 2008, and his subsequent re-election.
Ma signed a series of key economic deals with Beijing and held a landmark meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in November in neutral Singapore.
Taiwan is one of China's most sensitive political issues, and a core concern for the Communist Party, trumping even Beijing's claims in the South China Sea.
China's military, the world's largest, held live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait in September, though Taiwan's Defence Ministry described them at the time as routine.
Taiwan's military has warned that China has practised attacks on targets modelled on places in Taiwan. Taiwan also estimates China aims hundreds of missiles at the island.
(Additional reporting by J.R. Wu; Editing by Nick Macfie and Clarence Fernandez)
