Recent Chinese People Liberation Army (PLA) activities are intended to display its “long reach” and test neighboring countries’ red lines, a national security official said today.
The actions could also be retroactively labeled as “Joint Sword-2024B” drills in response to President William Lai’s (賴清德) Double Ten National Day comments, the official said on condition of anonymity, recalling the large-scale “Joint Sword-2024A” drills held after Lai’s inauguration on May 20.
One strategy is to conduct long-range missile tests with far enough reach to target countries in the first island chain, they said.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The PLA usually only tests short and mid-range missiles, they said.
However, it on Sept. 25 test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Pacific, in addition to other missiles with a range exceeding 5,000km from a base in the north, the official said.
The Ministry of National Defense on Sept. 29 said it had detected waves of missile tests at bases in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang provinces.
The PLA has also increased activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, and conducted joint patrols with Russia for the first time last month in the northern Pacific in a bid to flaunt its reach, the official said.
The PLA is also pushing the limits of its “gray zone” activities to test other countries’ red lines, they said.
Examples of this include flying warplanes into Japanese airspace, sailing the Liaoning aircraft carrier near Okinawa and firing an ICBM, the official said.
The actions are likely intended to limit European presence and democratic cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region, and to give Beijing room for negotiation as countries including Japan and the US are facing leadership changes, they added.
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