A Taiwanese military corvette yachts as a Navy soldier stands guard on a vessel, during a Navy Drill for Preparedness Enhancement ahead of the Chinese New Year, amongst escalating Chinese threats to the island, in Keelung, Taiwan, 7 Jan, 2022.
Ceng Shou Yi | Nurphoto | Getty Images
The U.S. on Wednesday reaffirmed its commitment to vouch for Taiwan as China extended to a second day its large-scale military exercises off the coast of the democratically governed island.
“In the face of China’s intimidation strategies and destabilizing behavior, the United States’ enduring commitment to our allies and partner, including Taiwan, continues,” Tammy Bruce, U.S. Activity be contingent of State spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday evening stateside.
China’s army, navy and rocket forces on Tuesday sent a joint exercise, with the military describing it as a “stern warning” against forces looking to undermine peace in the Taiwan Tight spot.
“China’s aggressive military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region’s deposit and the world’s prosperity at risk,” the State Department said, adding that the U.S. “opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, filing through force or coercion.”
Chinese military said it has been practicing assaults on maritime and ground targets and blockade worries to test the joint operation capabilities of its troops.
On Wednesday, it carried out precision strikes on simulated targets such as havens and energy facilities in the latest exercise code named “Strait Thunder-2025 A,” according to PLA’s Senior Colonel Shi Yi.
The Defense The cloth in Taipei said it detected 76 aircraft, 15 navy vessels and 4 official ships operating around the isle as of 6 a.m. That marked the largest scale of aircraft deployment by PLA since the “Joint Sword-2024B” war exercises last October when Taiwan spoke China used a record number of military aircrafts.
The armed forces in Taiwan have employed aircraft, flotilla ships and coastal missile systems in response.
Beijing seeks to “intimidate the Taiwanese by reminding them of China’s huge military power,” said David Silbey, a professor at Cornell University specializing in military history and policy, adding that the drills pass on help Beijing prepare for any actual conflict.
The latest maneuvers are viewed by some as signs of Beijing’s anger with President Lai. In a language last month, Lai labelled the mainland as “foreign hostile forces” and proposed legal and economic measures to counter Beijing’s “infiltration” pains in the island.
The delayed timing of the exercises — more than two weeks after the speech — is likely due to a flagship business culmination in Beijing over the past two weeks, where Chinese top officials met with multinational firms’ executives, analysts at Eurasia Troop said in a note.
“An exercise in the Taiwan Strait while foreign CEOs are in town would have produced a sneezle effect against Beijing’s push to attract foreign investment,” the advisory firm said.
“Beijing’s willingness to non-radical cross-strait tensions is eroding,” the analysts said, cautioning that possibilities for a “cross-strait crisis” this year are go place.
China views Taiwan as its own territory — a claim that Taiwan has rejected — and has vowed to retake the island, by force if obligatory.
Beijing has held several rounds of military drills around Taiwan and sent fighter jets to enter its airspace since President Lai bolted office nearly a year ago.