China’s military sometimes simulates attacks on foreign naval vessels in the Taiwan Strait, and Taipei shares intelligence with international partners when they operate in those waters, a senior Taiwanese security official said yesterday.
China claims sole sovereignty and jurisdiction over the Strait, a major trade route for about half of global container ships, while Taiwan and the US maintain that it is an international waterway.
US warships sail through the Strait every few months, and some US allies, such as the UK and Canada, have also made occasional transits. A New Zealand navy ship transited through the Strait last month.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
The navies of Australia, Canada, France, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, the US and Vietnam have made 12 trips through the Strait so far this year, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said.
Vietnam has close ties to Beijing. Although the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment, state media on Monday said that a warship was visiting China’s northern port of Qingdao.
Beijing’s basic principle is to “shadow every ship” during such missions, sending its own naval forces, Tsai told a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee.
“In addition, they will sometimes mobilize air forces ... to carry out simulated attacks in order to demonstrate their military presence and claimed authority in the Taiwan Strait,” he added.
Taiwan has an extensive and sophisticated radar and surveillance network monitoring the Strait.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment. China routinely denounces such sailings as a provocation.
Tsai said Taiwan and its “international partners” share intelligence, including information on Chinese military activities, while foreign navy ships are in the Strait.
“As a result, when our international friends enter the waters around the Taiwan Strait, they can generally grasp the typical modes of Chinese communists’ activity,” he said.
China’s military operates around Taiwan on an almost daily basis in a campaign Taipei views as harassment to pressure the government and Taiwan’s armed forces, by making them repeatedly scramble deterrent aircraft.
China’s last named war game around Taiwan in April was called “Strait Thunder-2025.”
In December last year, Taiwan reported a surge in Chinese air force and navy activity around the nation and in regional waters, although China never officially confirmed its drills.
Asked about further Chinese exercises on Saturday next week, the anniversary of the Nanjing Massacre, and before the end of the year, Tsai said the months from October to December are typically a busy season for China’s drills, and Taipei was keeping watch to see if any turned into Taiwan-specific war games.
China has four naval groups in the Western Pacific at the moment, he added.
Additional reporting by Huang Chin-hsuan and Sam Garcia
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