The Taiwanese military is on high alert and is closely monitoring the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) air and naval deployments after Beijing yesterday reserved seven airspace areas east of its Zhejiang and Fujian provinces through Wednesday.
Beijing’s action was perceived as a precursor to a potential third “Joint Sword” military exercise, which national security experts said the PLA could launch following President William Lai’s (賴清德) state visits to the nation’s three Pacific allies and stopovers in Hawaii and Guam last week.
Unlike the Joint Sword military exercises in May and October, when Beijing provided detailed information about the affected areas, it has yet to formally announce any planned military drills.
Illustration: Taipei Times
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs declined to answer when asked about launching military drills in response to Lai’s overseas trip, with spokeswoman Mao Ning (毛寧) simply reiterating the importance of Chinese sovereignty and maintaining Chinese territorial integrity.
While the previous two exercises focused on drills by the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said its intelligence had identified naval formations not only in the Eastern Theater Command, but also in the Northern and Southern Theater Commands.
The ministry added that it had detected China Coast Guard vessels entering areas around the Taiwan Strait and Western Pacific.
Photo: AFP / CGA
The Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning joined the second Joint Sword military exercise in October. Whether the carrier would join a third one remains to be seen.
Another difference about the anticipated drills is the area covered by the seven reserved airspace zones, which range from Shanghai in the north and Shantou in the south, with two of the zones close to Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties.
The defense ministry said that it has initiated combat-readiness drills at strategic locations nationwide and was working closely with the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) on appropriate countermeasures.
The CGA said it has detected “unusual activities” by several Chinese coast guard vessels in waters around Taiwan since Friday, including three last week and four yesterday.
Last week, the China Coast Guard ship No. 2901 navigated through waters south of the Taiwan Strait, while No. 1301 and No. 1302 ships navigated southward via waters off Taiwan’s northeast coast, the CGA said.
All three eventually gathered at about 50 to 60 nautical miles (93 km to 111km) off the northeast coast of Green Island on Taiwan’s east coast.
Yesterday, China Coast Guard vessels 2203, 2302, 2304 and 2307 navigated toward waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, the CGA said.
None of them entered Taiwan’s restricted waters, it added.
Using a one-on-one approach, the CGA also dispatched seven ships to closely monitor the whereabouts of the China Coast Guard ships, it said.
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