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 Ministry of National Defense said today.
Speaking in Taipei, ministry spokesperson Sun Li-fang (孫立方) 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.
China's military has yet to comment and has not confirmed it is carrying out any exercises.
Photo provided by the Ministry of National Defense
"The current scale is the largest compared to the previous four [exercises around Taiwan]," Sun said. "Regardless of whether they have announced drills, they are posing a great threat to us."
Senior ministry intelligence officer Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) told the same news conference there have so far been no live-fire drills in China's seven "reserved" airspace zones, two of which are in the Taiwan Strait, but there had been a significant increase in Chinese activity to the north of Taiwan over the past day.
The number of China navy and coast guard ships in the region, which a Taiwan security source told Reuters remained at around 90, was "very alarming," and China was taking aim at other countries in the region and not only Taiwan, he added.
China's deployment in the First Island Chain — which runs from Japan through Taiwan, the Philippines and on to Borneo, enclosing China's coastal seas — is aimed at area denial to prevent foreign forces from interfering, Hsieh said.
The ministry said China's navy is building two "walls" in the Pacific, one at the eastern end of Taiwan's air defense 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, Hsieh said.
Earlier today, the ministry said it detected 47 military aircraft operating around the nation over the past 24 hours, as well as 12 navy vessels and nine "official" ships, which refers to vessels from ostensibly civilian agencies such as the coast guard.
Of the aircraft, 26 flew in an area to the north of Taiwan off the coast of China's Zhejiang Province, six in the Taiwan Strait and a further 15 to the nation's southwest, according to a map the ministry provided in its daily morning statement on Chinese activities.
A senior Taiwan security source told Reuters that the Chinese aircraft simulated attacks on foreign naval ships and practiced driving away military and civilian aircraft as part of a "blockade exercise."
China has held two rounds of major war games around Taiwan so far this year.
If China holds another military exercise, it would be viewed as coercive behavior which would be counterproductive in terms of diplomacy, Heino Klinck, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, told CNA today.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is extending its scale and coverage of military drills every time, which is a way of numbing Taiwan and its allies, he said.
“Normalizing” its military exercises would arouse less attention and could affect Taiwan and its allies’ judgement and shorten their reaction time if an actual invasion happens, he said.
The US is closely monitoring the PLA’s activities around Taiwan, a spokesperson of the US Department of State said today.
The department called for restraint and said China should avoid taking any actions that could destroy regional peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
President William Lai’s (賴清德) transit in US territory during his tour of Pacific allies last week should not be an excuse for exerting military pressure on Taiwan, it said.
China is angry because of Lai’s stopovers in Hawaii and Guam during his Pacific tour, former US Navy rear admiral Mark Montgomery said.
Montgomery, senior director of the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation of the Washington-based think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said the PLA was expected to hold military exercises this winter.
It is worrying that the PLA’s drills have become larger and more complicated and directly threaten Taiwan’s security, he said.
These drills are intended to convey strategic messages to the Taiwanese and create opportunities for training the PLA, he said while calling on the US and Taiwan to continue to promote their bilateral relationship in suitable ways.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
FLOOD RECOVERY: “Post-Typhoon Danas reconstruction special act” is expected to be approved on Thursday, the premier said, adding the flood control in affected areas would be prioritized About 200cm of rainfall fell in parts of southern Taiwan from Monday last week to 9am yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Kaohsiung’s Taoyuan District (桃源) saw total rainfall of 2,205mm, while Pingtung County’s Sandimen Township (三地門) had 2,060.5mm and Tainan’s Nanhua District (南化) 1,833mm, according to CWA data. Meanwhile, Alishan (阿里山) in Chiayi County saw 1,688mm of accumulated rain and Yunlin County’s Caoling (草嶺) had 1,025mm. The Pingtung County Government said that 831 local residents have been pre-emptively evacuated from mountainous areas. A total of 576 are staying with relatives in low-lying areas, while the other 255 are in shelters. CWA forecaster
RSS