Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te poses for pictures along with military personnel during his visit to a military camp in Taoyuan, Taiwan, on May 23.Ann Wang/Reuters
China on Friday continued large-scale military drills around Taiwan, just days after the inauguration of new Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) began two-day joint army, naval, air force and rocket drills early Thursday morning in the waters surrounding Taiwan, the largest such exercises since Mr. Lai was elected in January, winning a record third consecutive term for his Democratic Progressive Party, which rejects unification with China.
In a statement, the PLA said the drills Friday were designed to test the ability to “seize power” and control key areas. Earlier, a spokesman for the force, Li Xi, said they would also “serve as a strong punishment” for those advocating Taiwan independence “and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces.”
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry called the Chinese drills an “irrational provocation” that undermines “regional peace and stability,” and said the island’s military was ready to respond if necessary. A spokeswoman for Mr. Lai’s office, Kuo Ya-hui, said, “in the face of external challenges and threats, we will continue to defend democracy and have the confidence and ability to protect our national security.”
In his inaugural address Monday, Mr. Lai had called on China to recognize Taiwan’s sovereignty – the island has been ruled separately from the mainland since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 – and work together for peace across the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese military drills around Taiwan
China launched military drills around Taiwan on May 23, send- ing up heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks.
Taiwan’s air defense identification zone
Chinese military drills
in August 2022
Chinese military drills
in May 2024
Median line
Matsu Islands
CHINA
Fuzhou
Japanese islands
Wuqiu Islands
Xiamen
Taipei
Kinmen Islands
TAIWAN
Kaohsiung
South China Sea
Philippine islands
the globe and mail, source: reuters
Chinese military drills around Taiwan
China launched military drills around Taiwan on May 23, send- ing up heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks.
Taiwan’s air defense identification zone
Chinese military drills
in August 2022
Chinese military drills
in May 2024
Median line
Matsu Islands
CHINA
Fuzhou
Japanese islands
Wuqiu Islands
Xiamen
Taipei
Kinmen Islands
TAIWAN
Kaohsiung
South China Sea
Philippine islands
the globe and mail, source: reuters
Chinese military drills around Taiwan
China launched military drills around Taiwan on May 23, sending up heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks.
Taiwan’s air defense identification zone
Chinese military drills
in August 2022
Chinese military drills
in May 2024
Median line
Matsu Islands
CHINA
Fuzhou
Wuqiu Islands
Japanese islands
Xiamen
Taipei
Kinmen Islands
TAIWAN
Kaohsiung
South China Sea
Philippine islands
the globe and mail, source: reuters
Beijing, which claims Taiwan as its territory despite the Communists never having controlled the island, has always viewed the DPP, and Mr. Lai in particular, with suspicion, denouncing him as a “separatist” during the election campaign. China said his speech – in which Mr. Lai repeatedly referred to Taiwan and China as separate countries – was provocative and “extremely harmful” to cross-Strait relations.
While Mr. Lai did depart somewhat from the cautious language of his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen – who used terms such as “the other side of the Strait” and the “Beijing authorities” rather than referring to Taiwan and China as two distinct entities – his speech was largely a reiteration of Taipei’s long-standing position on cross-Strait matters.
Some kind of Chinese military action has long been predicted since Mr. Lai secured a better-than-expected 40 per cent of the vote. Beijing’s favoured party, the pro-unification Kuomintang, failed to build on its support base, which has dwindled as more and more Taiwanese voters embrace a non-Chinese identity.
James Chen, a professor at Tamkang University in New Taipei City, said Thursday’s drills appeared to be on par with those staged during a visit to Taiwan by then U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in 2022.
Moving forces in place for such exercises takes a large amount of planning and time, and Prof. Chen said Chinese naval assets were on the move prior to Mr. Lai’s speech, in apparent preparation for an aggressive response.
China launched 'punishment' drills around Taiwan on May 23 in what it said was a response to 'separatist acts,' sending up heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated President Lai Ching-te.
Reuters
He added that the code name used for the drills by the PLA, Joint Sword 2024-A, suggests “there might be more to come, with 2024-B, 2024-C et cetera.”
Beijing is not believed to be ready to stage an invasion of Taiwan, and may never be, given the scale, difficulty and huge ramifications of such a conflict. But exercises like Thursday’s do give the PLA valuable information, while also testing and taxing Taiwan’s defence forces.
Su Tzu-yun, a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, a Taiwanese military think tank, said the drills appeared designed to demonstrate China’s ability to control the seas around Taiwan and prevent any of the island’s allies intervening.
“The political signals here are greater than the military ones,” he added.
Speaking in Canberra on Thursday, Lieutenant-General Stephen Sklenka, deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, said the PLA has used drills in the past to practise for a future invasion, but this does not mean such an attack is inevitable or imminent.
“I cannot underscore enough how devastating conflict in the Indo-Pacific region would be,” Lt.-Gen. Sklenka said in an address to Australia’s National Press Club. “At stake would be untold numbers of lives, trillions of dollars in global economic damage and maintenance of an international order that has delivered relative peace and stability over the past 80 years.”
Under the DPP, Taiwan has seen more and more of its official diplomatic allies picked off by Beijing, but also enjoyed considerably more support from the West than in the past. Mr. Lai’s inauguration was attended by lawmakers and officials from the U.S., Canada, Japan and multiple European countries.
In a statement, Canada’s trade office in Taipei, the country’s de facto embassy, said Ottawa looked forward to working with the new Lai administration and building on Canada and Taiwan’s “shared foundations of democracy, human rights and the rule of law.”
With reports from Reuters