Chinese military launches large-scale drills around Taiwan
[April 01, 2025]
By HUIZHONG WU and JOHNSON LAI
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Chinese military announced large-scale drills
in the waters and airspace around Taiwan on Tuesday that include an
aircraft carrier battle group, as it again warned the self-ruled island
democracy against seeking formal independence.
The joint exercises involve navy, air ground and rocket forces and are
meant to be a “severe warning and forceful containment against Taiwan
independence,” according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the People's
Liberation Army's Eastern Theater Command. No operational name for the
drills was announced nor previous notice given.
China considers Taiwan a part of its territory, to be brought under its
control by force if necessary, while most Taiwanese favor their de-facto
independence and democratic status. Any conflict could bring in the
U.S., which maintains a series of alliances in the region and is legally
bound to treat threats to Taiwan as a matter of “grave concern.”
Taiwan's Presidential Office said in a message on the social platform X
that “China’s blatant military provocations not only threaten peace in
the #Taiwan Strait but also undermine security in the entire region, as
evidenced by drills near Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the
Philippines & the SCS. We strongly condemn China’s escalatory behavior."
The SCS refers to the South China Sea, the strategic waterway that China
claims almost in its entirety. China's navy also recently held drills
near Australia and New Zealand for which it gave no warning, forcing the
last-minute rerouting of commercial flights.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said it had tracked 19 Chinese
navy vessels in the waters surrounding the island in a 24-hour period
from 6 a.m. Monday until 6 a.m. Tuesday.
It added that it had been tracking the movement of the Shandong aircraft
carrier since Saturday and that its carrier group had entered into
Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Monday, a self-defined area
tracked by the military. China regularly dispatches military assets into
the zone, which China does not recognize, but Taiwanese officials have
recently warned that China could launch a sneak attack under the guise
of military exercises.
“I want to say these actions amply reflect (China's) destruction of
regional peace and stability,” said Taiwan's Defense Minister Wellington
Koo.
Taiwan has set up a central response group to monitor the latest
exercises, Koo said.
China's Xinhua News Agency said the Eastern Theater Command on Tuesday
conducted “multi-subject drills in waters to the north, south and east
of Taiwan Island.”
The theater command “organized its vessel and aircraft formations, in
coordination with conventional missile troops and long-range rocket
launching systems, to conduct drills of air interception, assault on
maritime targets, strikes on ground objects, and joint blockade and
control,” Xinhua quoted the command as saying.
The exercises were "aimed at testing the troops’ capabilities of
carrying out integrated operations, seizure of operational control and
multi-directional precision strikes, the command said.
On the streets of Taipei, people said the atmosphere was tense but they
were more concerned about the economy and developments surrounding the
administration of U.S. President Donald Trump.
“The Chinese Communists spend so much time and effort on these things
but most people don't pay much attention,” said Lin Hui-tsung, a noodle
seller in the city's Tiananmu district.
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This image released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense shows
China’s Shandong aircraft carrier sailing near Taiwan on Monday,
March 31, 2025. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)
China's Coast Guard also announced it was conducting a “law
enforcement patrol” on Tuesday around Taiwan, its spokesperson Zhu
Anqin said.
The drills come just two weeks after a large-scale exercise in
mid-March, when Beijing sent a large number of drones and ships
toward the island.
China's Taiwan Affairs Office said the exercises were directed at
Lai Ching-te, Taiwan's strongly pro-independence president.
“Lai Ching-te stubbornly insists on a ‘Taiwan independence’ stance,
brazenly labeling the mainland as a ‘foreign hostile force,’ and has
put forward a so-called “17-point strategy ... stirring up
anti-China sentiments,” said China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in a
statement on Tuesday. “We will not tolerate or condone this in any
way and must resolutely counter and severely punish these actions.”
In mid-March, Taiwan’s Lai put forward a 17-point strategy aimed at
shoring up Taiwan’s national security. The points include allowing
espionage cases to be tried by military courts and making
immigration rules stricter for Chinese citizens applying for
permanent residency.
Lai's words and actions appear to have especially angered Chinese
leader Xi Jinping, whose previous attempts at intimidation have had
little effect on the Taiwanese public. Those have often been timed
in response to expressions of Taiwanese independence, including a
visit by then U.S. House leader Nancy Pelosi.
China’s PLA also released a series of videos to publicize their
military exercise, including one in which they depict Lai as a green
parasite “poisoning” the island by hatching smaller parasites. The
video shows Lai’s head on the body of a bulbous green worm, with a
pair of chopsticks picking him up and roasting him over a flame set
over Taiwan.
Beijing sends warplanes and navy vessels toward the island on a
daily basis, seeking to wear down Taiwanese defenses and morale,
although the vast majority of the island’s 23 million people reject
its claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. In recent years, it has
stepped up the scope and scale of these exercises, from sending
small numbers of individual fighters and surveillance planes to
sending groups of planes, drones and ships.
“The PLA organized naval and air forces to practice subjects such as
sea and land strikes, focusing on testing the troops’ ability to
carry out precision strikes on some key targets of the Taiwan
authorities from multiple directions,” said Zhang Chi, a professor
at China's National Defense University in an interview with Chinese
state television.
Taiwan and China split amid civil war 76 years ago, but tensions
have risen since 2016, when China cut off almost all contacts with
Taipei.
___
Wu reported from Bangkok. Christopher Bodeen contributed to this
report from Taipei, Taiwan.
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