China's military claims to have carried out a beach landing and assault exercise in the province directly across the sea from Taiwan.

The official People's Liberation Army Daily newspaper, in a brief report on its Weibo microblogging account said the drills had been carried out "in recent days" in the southern part of Fujian province, according to a Reuters report.

Explaining the exercise the report said the action had involved "shock" troops, sappers and boat specialists. The troops were divided into multiple waves to capture the beach.

It even showed a video of soldiers in boats attacking a beach, throwing smoke grenades, breaking through barbed wire defences and digging trenches in the sand.

From a military standpoint, Fujian would be a key launching site for any Chinese invasion of Taiwan because of the close distance.

The development comes at a time when China's President Xi Jinping has said that "reunification" with Taiwan "must be fulfilled."

Mr Xi said unification should be achieved peacefully, but warned that the Chinese people had a "glorious tradition" of opposing separatism.

In response, Taiwan said its future lay in the hands of its people.

Taiwan considers itself a sovereign state, while China views it as a breakaway province which has to be united with the mainland even by force, if need be.

China has been regularly carrying out military exercises on its coast as well as in the disputed South China Sea to intimidate Taiwan. It had upped the ante recently by flying waves of fighter jets into Taiwan’s air defence zone.

Taiwan has condemned China's coercive tactics and says it does not want to be dragged into a war but will defend itself if attacked