Even though the Ministry of Defense announced on Sunday that a People's Liberation Army exercise in the water and air space off the southeast coast should be regarded as a routine arrangement according to the annual plan of the Chinese military, it is understandable that some have interpreted it as a message of deterrence to Taiwan secessionists, given how tense cross-Straits relations have become.

Indeed, the situation across the Taiwan Straits has continually worsened in recent months as the island's leader Tsai Ing-wen and her followers have been persistently poking the Chinese mainland's most sensitive nerve — that of sovereignty and territorial integrity — through various tricks.

Last week, Tsai staged a stopover farce in the United States on her way to visiting four Caribbean countries, which the island's pro-independence Green camp elatedly called a "major diplomatic breakthrough".

Since Beijing is firmly and clearly opposed to any official exchanges between the US and Taiwan, Tsai's stopover drew strong opposition from Beijing, which made a stern representation to Washington urging it to abide by the one-China principle and the three China-US joint communiqués.

Washington knew Tsai's visit would rile Beijing, but it gave Washington the chance to play the Taiwan card in its diplomacy with Beijing at a time when the two sides are planning to restart their trade negotiations.

Likewise, a few days before Tsai made her controversial stopover in New York, the US State Department approved a plan to sell $2.22 billion worth of arms to Taiwan. Beijing not only strongly opposed the move, it also announced it would impose sanctions on the US enterprises involved in the latest arms sales to the island.

This is the first time Beijing has taken a countermeasure to a US arms sale to Taiwan, which underscores not only Beijing's indignation at Washington's meddling in the Taiwan question, but also its determination to safeguard its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

As Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday, if the US wants to create new troubles in Sino-US relations, ultimately its actions will backfire. He urged Washington to fully recognize the gravity of the Taiwan question and "honor its promise of adhering to the one-China principle".

With Washington emboldening them, Tsai and her followers on the island show no signs of cooling their ardor for "Taiwan independence", which is why the PLA's military exercise, although a routine drill, certainly carries more meaning this time. If pro-independence forces on the island continue to play with fire, they will eventually get burned. It behoves Washington to stop giving them matches to fool around with.