The bully is getting even more in your face than usual if you live in Taiwan.
ROC President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to the United States—albeit self-consciously restricted to the fringe regions of Hawaii and Guam and excluding any in-person meetings with DC potentates like congressmen or outgoing or incoming presidents—may have had something to do with provoking the mainland’s extra ire.
But China is also annoyed by the latest U.S. government’s latest arms sales to the Republic of China.
The mega-drills could also, as The New York Times suggests, “be a signal to the incoming Trump administration, which has yet to indicate how it will deal with Taiwan. President-elect Donald J. Trump has called for Taiwan to increase its military spending and has complained about the island’s dominance in making semiconductors. But some people he has picked to serve in his administration favor confronting China and offering more support to Taiwan.”
● The New York Times: “Taiwan Says China Has Deployed Largest Fleet of Ships in Decades” (December 10, 2024):
“Taiwan said on Tuesday that China was conducting its largest maritime operations in nearly three decades, sending nearly 90 naval and coast guard vessels into waters stretching from the southern Japanese islands to the South China Sea.
“Taiwanese defense officials said the scope of the deployment suggested that China was not only trying to show that it could choke the self-governed island, but also that it could block American allies in the region like Japan and the Philippines from coming to Taiwan’s defense.”
● Fox News: “Chinese military makes massive deployment around Taiwan to send ‘very simple’ message” (December 10, 2024).
“Officials say China has sent about a dozen ships and 47 military planes to regional waters around the Taiwan Strait, as the nation braces for military drills following Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s recent overseas trip that included visits to Hawaii and Guam, an American territory….
“The visits came just weeks after the U.S. approved a potential $2 billion arms sale package to Taiwan, including the delivery of an advanced air defense missile system battle tested in Ukraine and radar systems….
“ ‘The message they are sending is very simple: The Taiwan Strait is ours,’ [Taiwan’s Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng] said, referring to the waters between Taiwan and China.
“Taiwan officials say the deployment came without an announcement and are calling the ongoing activity a training exercise.
“However, Hsieh warned that training can become drills, and drills can become war.”
● France 24: “Taiwan says China is carrying out some of its biggest-ever maritime military exercises”
“ ‘Nearly 90’ Chinese naval and coast guard ships were currently in waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines, a senior Taiwanese security official told AFP.
“Taiwan’s defence ministry said earlier it had also detected 47 Chinese aircraft near the island in the 24 hours to 6:00 am (2200 GMT).
“That was the highest number of aircraft detected in a single day since a record 153 reported on October 15, after China staged major military drills in response to Lai’s National Day speech days earlier.
“Defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said Tuesday the number of Chinese ships in the waters around Taiwan exceeded Beijing’s maritime response to then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022.
“China has staged four large-scale military exercises in just over two years, including the drills in response to Pelosi’s visit and two since Lai took office in May.
“ ‘It can indeed be said that the scale of these maritime forces exceeds the four drills since 2022,’ Sun told reporters.”
● Reuters: “China sends largest naval fleet in decades to region, threat level severe, Taiwan says”
“China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Taiwanese defence ministry said on Tuesday.
“Speaking in Taipei, defence ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of 1996 Taiwanese presidential elections….
“The ministry said China’s navy is building two ‘walls’ in the Pacific, one at the eastern end of Taiwan’s Air Defence Identification Zone and the other further out in the Pacific.
“ ‘They are sending a very simple message with these two walls: trying to make the Taiwan Strait an internal sea’ of China, said [ministry intelligence officer Hsieh Jih-Sheng].”
● CNN: “China’s maritime movements around Taiwan are largest in decades, Taipei says”
“An ‘astonishing’ number of Chinese vessels have been deployed at a scale that ‘could block external forces,’ Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-Sheng, deputy chief of the General Staff for Intelligence, said at a Taiwan Defense Ministry briefing Tuesday.
“The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) naval deployment was not only targeting Taiwan, Hsieh said, adding that the geographic spread stretched into waters past the first island chain. The strategically significant chain of islands encompasses Japan, Taiwan, parts of the Philippines and Indonesia, and as long been a key plank in the US maintaining its position as the dominant power in the Pacific.
“ ‘The PLA’s recent activities not only exerted military pressure on Taiwan. Its naval forces, specifically, have significantly raised its posture around Taiwan and the Western Pacific,’ Hsieh said.”
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The information in these reports is not detailed enough to make clear whether the PRC’s latest drills are really the largest in three decades or only the largest since 2022 or what. But the maneuvers are pretty large and intimidating and seem intended to show what the PRC could and would do if it did invade and/or blockade Taiwan.
