China has deployed air, navy and rocket troops to the waters around Taiwan for drills that its military said were aimed at testing combat readiness and delivering a “stern warning” against “separatist” and “external interference” forces.
The announcement on Monday came amid anger in Beijing over an $11.1bn weapons sale to Taiwan by the United States, as well as a statement by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, who suggested that the Japanese military could get involved if China were to attack the self-governed island.
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Beijing considers Taiwan as part of its territory and has pledged to take control of the island by force if necessary.
In a statement, the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command said it was dispatching army, navy, air force and rocket force troops to five zones around Taiwan for its “Just Mission 2025”, starting on Monday.
Live-fire exercises will begin on Tuesday in the Taiwan Strait and areas to the north, southwest, southeast and east of the island, it said.
Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Theatre Command, said in a post on Chinese social media platform Weibo that the activities will focus “on training for maritime and aerial combat readiness patrols, gaining integrated control, sealing off key ports and areas and conducting multi-dimensional deterrence”. The drills serve “as a serious warning to ‘Taiwan Independence’ separatist forces and external interference forces”, he added.
A separate statement with a map showed five large zones surrounding the island where “live firing activities will be organised” from 8am to 6pm (00:00-10:00 GMT) on Tuesday. “For the sake of safety, any irrelevant vessel or aircraft is advised not to enter the afore-mentioned waters and airspace,” the statement read.
Sixth major round of drills
The planned drills mark China’s sixth major round of war games since 2022 – after then-US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan – and were described by the state-owned Xinhua news agency as “a legitimate and necessary action to safeguard China’s sovereignty and national unity”.
The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said it had deployed fighter jets, bombers, unmanned aerial vehicles, and long-range rockets, and would practise striking mobile land-based targets.
Chinese vessels and aircraft will approach Taiwan “in close proximity from different directions” and troops of multiple services will “engage in joint assaults to test their joint operations capabilities”, according to Shi.
China’s state broadcaster added that the drills would focus on sealing off Taiwan’s vital deep-water Port of Keelung to the island’s north and Kaohsiung to Taiwan’s south, the island’s largest port city.
While the Chinese military has practised port blockades around Taiwan during war games last year, this marks the first time it has publicly stated that drills around the island are aimed at deterring foreign military intervention, according to observers.
Taiwan’s government condemned the drills.
A presidential office spokesperson urged China not to misjudge the situation and undermine regional peace, and called on Beijing to immediately halt what they described as irresponsible provocations.
“In response to the Chinese authorities’ disregard for international norms and the use of military intimidation to threaten neighbouring countries, Taiwan expresses its strong condemnation,” said Karen Kuo, the spokesman for the presidential office.
‘Strong signal’ to US, Japan
Taiwan’s defence ministry said two Chinese military aircraft and 11 ships had been operating around the island over the last 24 hours, and that the island’s military was on high alert and poised to carry out “rapid response exercises”.
That particular drill is designed to move troops swiftly in case China suddenly turns one of its frequent drills around the island into an attack.
“All members of our armed forces will remain highly vigilant and fully on guard, taking concrete action to defend the values of democracy and freedom,” it said in a statement.
“The language is now very explicit about the goal of enhancing ‘anti access’ and ‘area denial capabilities,’” said William Yang, senior analyst for North East Asia at the Crisis Group.
He told Al Jazeera the language was a “very strong signal” to Taiwan’s unofficial allies like the US and Japan that they would be blocked from offering external assistance during a conflict.
The “Just Mission 2025” exercises also cover a notably larger zone around Taiwan than previous iterations, Yang said, and demonstrate that the PLA has upgraded its ability to swiftly deploy many different military assets to strategically important positions in a short window of time.
“This is a very real demonstration of the progress of the PLA’s modernisation,” he said.
The Chinese exercises come after the US announced earlier this month that it had approved $11.1bn in arms sales to Taiwan in the largest ever weapons package for the island.
The move drew a protest from China’s Ministry of National Defence and warnings that the military would “take forceful measures” in response.
Beijing last week also imposed sanctions against 20 US defence -related companies and 10 executives over the move.
The remarks from Takaichi, the Japanese prime minister, have also triggered a surge in Chinese messaging stressing its sovereignty claims. Chinese President Xi Jinping told his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in November that Taiwan’s “return to China” after World War Two was central to Beijing’s vision of the global order.
Taiwan rejects China’s claimed sovereignty, maintaining that only its people can decide the island’s future.
In an interview broadcast on Sunday, Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te told Sanli E-Television that the island must continue to raise the cost of aggression and strengthen its indigenous defence capabilities to deter China, stressing that peace can only be secured through strength.
“If China sets 2027 as the year to be ready for an invasion of Taiwan, then we have only one choice: to keep raising the difficulty so that China can never meet that standard. Taiwan will naturally remain safe,” Lai said.
