Rockets fired as China simulates blockade of Taiwan
Yimou Lee and Joe Cash |
China has fired rockets towards Taiwan and deployed new amphibious assault ships alongside bomber aircraft and warships to encircle the island on the second day of its most extensive war games aimed at rehearsing a blockade.
The Eastern Theatre Command said live-firing would take place in the sea and airspace of five locations surrounding Taiwan and off the Chinese coast, while naval and air force units drilled strikes on maritime and aerial targets as well as anti-submarine operations to the democratically governed island’s north and south.
Named “Justice Mission 2025”, the drills began 11 days after the US announced a record $US11.1 billion ($A16.6 billion) arms package to Taiwan and are Beijing’s largest exercises to date by total coverage and proximity to the island, following China’s Maritime Safety Administration on Monday adding two additional live-fire zones.
A senior Taiwan security official told Reuters that Taipei was watching whether this sixth major round of war games since 2022, when then-US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island, would also see China fire missiles over Taiwan, as it did then.
Beijing also looks to be using the exercises to practise striking land-based targets such as the US-made HIMARS rocket system, the source said, which could hit coastal targets in southern China.
Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te said in a post on Facebook that China’s exercises were “inconsistent with the conduct expected of a responsible major power”.
Frontline troops were primed to defend the island, but Taipei did not seek to escalate the situation, he said.
The island’s defence ministry confirmed live-firing drills had taken place to Taiwan’s north on Tuesday morning, and debris had entered its contiguous zone, defined as about 44km offshore.
Taiwan sits alongside key commercial shipping and aviation routes, with some $US2.45 trillion in trade moving through the Taiwan Strait each year.
While 11 of Taipei’s 14 flight routes have been affected by the drills, according to Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Authority, disruption to international flights appears to be minimal.
Fourteen Chinese coastguard vessels continued to sail around Taiwan’s contiguous zone on Tuesday, some of which were engaged in stand-offs with Taiwanese vessels, a Taiwan coast guard official told Reuters.
“We adopted a one-to-one parallel navigation approach, closely shadowing each other’s routes,” the official said, adding that Taiwan had also employed “wave-making and manoeuvring techniques” to force the Chinese vessels to retreat.
The defence ministry said 130 Chinese military aircraft and 22 navy and coastguard vessels had been operating around the island.
Beijing escalated its rhetoric about territorial claims to Taiwan after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi suggested in November that a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan could trigger a military response from Tokyo.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said of the seven zones Chinese authorities had demarcated for live-firing drills, five of them overlapped with Taiwan’s territorial waters.
The Chinese military said it had deployed destroyers, bombers and other units to drill sea-based assaults, air defence and anti-submarine operations on Tuesday.
The drills would “test sea and air forces’ ability to coordinate for integrated containment and control”.
Chinese media highlighted the first deployment of the Type 075 amphibious assault ship, which can simultaneously launch attack helicopters, landing-craft, amphibious tanks and armoured vehicles.
Reuters reported last week that a draft Pentagon report says “China expects to be able to fight and win a war on Taiwan by the end of 2027”, the centenary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army, a key symbolic milestone in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s modernisation drive.
Reuters
