BEIJING – China’s military started its second day of war games around Taiwan on May 24, with drills to test its ability to “seize power” and control key areas, exercises it has said were launched to punish Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te.
The two days of drills in the Taiwan Strait and around groups of Taiwan-controlled islands near the Chinese coast started just three days after Mr Lai took office.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and denounces Mr Lai as a “separatist”, decried his inauguration speech on May 20, in which he urged Beijing to stop its threats and said the two sides of the strait were “not subordinate to each other”.
The Eastern Theatre Command of the People’s Liberation Army said in a brief statement that its forces on May 23 continued with their drills, dubbed “Joint Sword – 2024A”.
The exercises are to “test the ability to jointly seize power, launch joint attacks and occupy key areas”, it said.
China has never ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.
A senior Taiwan security official told Reuters that several Chinese bombers conducted mock attacks on foreign vessels near the eastern end of the Bashi Channel, which separates Taiwan from the Philippines, practising how to seize “total control” of areas west of the first island chain.
The first island chain refers to the area that runs from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China’s coastal seas.
The official, speaking anonymously given the sensitivity of the situation, said several Chinese coast guard boats also conduced “harassment” drills off Taiwan’s east coast, including mock inspections of civilian ships.
China’s Coast Guard said in a brief statement it had conducted “law enforcement drills” in waters east of Taiwan on Friday, focused on training on verification and identification, warning and repulsion.
The command showed an animated video on May 24 on its WeChat social media account of missiles being launched at Taiwan from the ground, air and sea, which then slam into the cities of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Hualien in balls of flame.
“Sacred weapons to kill independence,” read words in red, written in the traditional Chinese characters Taiwan uses, at the end of the video.
Taiwan’s armed forces have mobilised to monitor and shadow the Chinese forces.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry on May 24 published pictures of F-16s, armed with live missiles, patrolling the skies.
It also showed pictures of China Coast Guard vessels, which are taking part in the drills, and Chinese Jiangdao-class corvettes, although it did not say exactly where the images were taken.
The ministry said that as at 6am on May 24, it had detected 49 Chinese military aircraft, 19 navy and seven coast guard ships. Of the aircraft, 28 crossed the strait’s median line, which once served as an unofficial barrier although China says it does not recognise it.
The closest Chinese aircraft got to Taiwan’s coast was 40 nautical miles from the northern city and navy base of Keelung, according to a map that the ministry provided.
Mr Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
Taiwan is well-used to China’s military threats, and the latest drills have caused no undue alarm on the island, with life carrying on as normal.
Taiwanese media have covered the drills, but also given a lot of time to ongoing drama about contested parliament reforms that have brought thousands of people onto the streets to protest.
On China’s highly regulated Weibo social media site, “Eastern Theatre” was the top searched item, with most of the comments supporting the drills. Another hot topic was “the return of Taiwan”.
In a May 24 commentary, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, the People’s Daily, said it was a shared belief among Chinese people that the territory of the nation cannot be divided, the country cannot be thrown into chaos and its people cannot be separated.
The recent actions of the “leader of the Taiwan region” will only accelerate the “destruction” of pro-independence forces in Taiwan, it wrote.
China is willing to create “broad space for peaceful reunification”, but will never leave any room for Taiwan “separatist activities”, the newspaper added.
Analysts, regional diplomats and senior Taiwan officials noted that so far, the scale of the drills was smaller than that of similar exercises in 2022. The exercises were widely anticipated by Taiwanese and foreign officials, but still raised the risk of accidents or miscalculations.
They said Beijing was sending a finely calibrated warning that Chinese forces could attempt a swift blockade if it wanted to bring Mr Lai to heel. REUTERS
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2024-05-24 05:08:30Z
CBMiVGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0cmFpdHN0aW1lcy5jb20vYXNpYS9jaGluYS1zdGFydHMtc2Vjb25kLWRheS1vZi13YXItZ2FtZXMtYXJvdW5kLXRhaXdhbtIBAA
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