Dozens of Chinese fighter jets carrying live missiles were seen flying over Pingtan island after China announced the start of two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan
In a first substantive response to Taiwan’s newly elected president Lai Ching-te, China has announced two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan. The drills are an extension to China’s long-lived vision of Taiwan’s occupation. China has launched these drills, analysts contemplate, as “punishment” against Taiwan for what it called the “separatist acts” of holding an election and inaugurating a new president.
Chinese state media claimed that dozens of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets carrying live missiles had carried out mock strikes against “high value military targets”, operating alongside navy forces. The state media also reported on Thursday morning that the drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, would involve units from the army, navy, air force, and rocket force, operating in the Taiwan Strait, to the north, south, and east of the main island. Units will also operate around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, which are all close to Chinese mainland.
Responding to China’s military infiltration, Taiwan accused it of “irrational provocation and disruption of regional peace and stability.” Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has announced that it is closely monitoring the situation – “Sea, air, and ground forces had been put on alert, base security had been strengthened, and air defense and missile forces ordered to monitor possible targets.”
Drills subsequent to Taiwan’s Presidential inauguration
On Monday, May 20th, during sworn-in ceremony of Taiwan’s newly elected president, Lai Ching-te, he took an oath to fight threats dismantling peace and security of the island nation. In his inaugural address, he specifically called-out China to seize their political and military maneuvers against Taiwan, share with Taiwan the global responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and ensure that the world is free from the fear of war.
No response came from China after the sworn-in ceremony. But three-days into Lai Ching-Te’ presidential beginnings, China has deployed its biggest military drills around Taiwan. Surely, Taiwan’s peace rhetoric failed to convince China to capitulate its military operation in the Strait. In fact, in recent years, China has heightened its presence on Taiwan, with increased air force incursions into its air defense identification zone, economic coercion, and cognitive warfare, designed to convince Taiwan to accept a Chinese takeover without war.
The drills are the first substantive response from China to the inauguration of Lai-Ching te as Taiwan’s newest president, after winning the democratic election in January. Both Lai and his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen are from the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which Beijing considers to be separatists. Beijing claims Taiwan is a province of China, and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary. Taiwan’s government and people overwhelmingly reject the prospect of Communist Party of China rule, and Taiwan’s leaders have vowed to increase deterrence measures and boost defenses, while urging China to seize its threat and return to dialogue.
On Monday afternoon, a spokesperson from the Chinese ministry of foreign affairs said Taiwan’s independence was a “dead end, and no matter under what banner, succession is doomed to fail.” Chinese warplanes and naval vessels maintain a near-daily presence around the island, and in the week before the sworn-in ceremony there was an increase in the number of fighter jets and drones.
A brief history of drills launched by China around Taiwan
In 2022, China surrounded Taiwan with live-fire exercises in response to a visit to Taipei by the then US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The map published on Thursday by Chinese state media showed the same exercise operating in the same areas as in 2022. In 2023, China again staged large-scale drills, in response to a meeting in the US between president Tsai and US Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Those drills escalated the tactics displayed in 2022, simulating a blockade of Taiwan and pre-invasion attacks.
These military exercises were not randomly deployed by China, they were mindfully executed with more intensity every time any international delegate comes to Taiwan on a state visit or if Taiwanese envoy flees to international borders to extend diplomatic ties. Clearly, Taiwan’s democratic election, and its newly elected president taking on the island throne, was likely to provoke an angry response from China, and it did. Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said on Thursday his government would contact Beijing to “directly and clearly” communicate to Beijing to maintain peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Japan has a strong relationship with Taiwan and is close ally of the US. It has grown more vocal in its concerns about China’s actions in the Taiwan Strait, in part because of Japanese territory that is close to Taiwan. During the Nancy Pelosi drills, Tokyo lodged strong complaints with Beijing over the firing of PLA missiles across the island of Taiwan and into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
