The Chinese military has launched a new war game with ships and aircraft near Taiwan, days after the autonomous democratic island celebrated its National Day.
Lieutenant Li Xi, a spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command, said on Monday that the exercise, dubbed “Joint Sword-2024B,” took place in “the northern, southern and eastern regions of Taiwan Island.”
He added that the training “focuses on the subject of naval and air combat readiness patrols, blockades of major ports and areas,” and also includes "attacks on maritime and ground targets.”
He added that the training was a “legitimate and necessary operation to protect national sovereignty and national unity,” without giving a date for the training to end.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense strongly condemned China’s “irrational and provocative actions” and said it responded appropriately by deploying appropriate military forces to protect Taiwan’s freedom and democracy and protect its sovereignty.
As of 8 a.m. (midnight Japan time), a total of 11 ships, including about 25 People’s Liberation Army aircraft and seven Navy ships, had been spotted operating around Taiwan.
The Presidential Office said China should respect the free and democratic choice of the Taiwanese people and refrain from military provocations.
In recent years, China has stepped up its military activities around Taiwan, which it claims as its own territory. The latest drill comes as the island’s president, William Lai Qingtoku, gave his first National Day speech on October 10, pledging to resist any “annexation or encroachment” and for the Chinese government to protect the island’s 23 million people. This came days after he promised he had no right to represent him.
Handout from PLA Eastern Theater Command showing location of Joint Sword-2024B exercise (Handout via PLA/AFP)
“It was widely expected that the People’s Liberation Army would conduct military exercises in the wake of Mr. Lai’s National Day speech,” Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific program, told Al Jazeera. Ta. “This exercise has the effect of demonstrating to a domestic audience that the Chinese Communist Party is determined to defend Chinese territory. It also serves as a warning to Taipei and Washington not to cross Beijing’s red line. It is the purpose.”
“It will pass.”
The Chinese government has not ruled out the possibility of using force to bring Taiwan under its control, and said the drills were a warning against “separatist actions by the Taiwanese Independence Army.”
The government has accused Mr. Rai, who was elected in January and took office in May, of being a “separatist” and even held a military exercise called “Joint Sword-2024A” three days after taking office.
Lev Nachman, a political science professor at National Taiwan University in Taipei, said China’s recent actions were not surprising.
“Military threats are no small matter, but everyone knew that China would respond to Prime Minister Lai’s speech on the 10th with some kind of military threat,” Nachman wrote in X. “There’s no need to panic or overreact.” We all saw this coming. It will go by in a blink of an eye. ”
Mr. Lai also appears to be lobbying the Chinese government in his October 10 speech, expressing his hope for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges” and using his influence on the Chinese government to resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine. I urged them to do so.
However, in an analysis of the speech published on Sunday, China’s state-run newspaper Global Times quoted an analyst who described Lai’s speech as a “poison pill wrapped in cellophane.”
Other state media outlets also accused Lai of promoting a “two-state” theory to explain Taiwan and China, after he cited differences between Taiwan and China’s administrations last week. The People’s Republic of China celebrated its National Day on October 1st, turning 75 years old, and the Republic of China, headquartered in Taipei, celebrated its National Foundation Day on October 10th and turned 113 years old.
Yang Kuan-shun, co-founder of the Taipei-based think tank U.S.-Taiwan Watch, cited the Russia-Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle East, saying the exercise comes at a time when China has become internationally active in its waters amid global turmoil. He said he may be trying. Threats from the East and North Korea.
“There continue to be a number of regional flashpoints in the world, and perhaps the Chinese government is using this as an opportunity to … test its will and see if global support for Taiwan is strong enough,” he told Al Jazeera. I regard it as such,” he said.
Beijing is trying to remove Taiwan from the international scene, cut it off from world forums, and separate it from its few remaining formal diplomatic allies.
The United States remains Taiwan’s major international supporter and arms supplier.
From a report by Erin Hale from Taipei
