Although China’s “Joint Sword-2024B” military exercises around Taiwan on Monday were apparently shorter than the previous “Joint Sword-2024A” drills, they were intense in terms of swift simulated attacks and deployment of ships and aircraft.
The previous large-scale military drills encircled Taiwan on May 23 and 24, the purpose of which was to respond to President William Lai’s (賴清德) May 20 inaugural address.
Lasting only 13 hours, Monday’s exercises came four days after Lai delivered his first Double Ten National Day address, in which he said the People’s Republic of China has “no right to represent Taiwan” and reiterated that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “not subordinate” to each other.
Photo: Screen grab from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Eastern Theater Command’s Sina Weibo account
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) said that part of the drills practiced what it called a “key port blockade”, severing Taiwan’s maritime lifeline for imports of trade, food and energy.
It aimed to show China’s ability to stop energy imports, especially at ports offloading liquefied natural gas (LNG), PLA National Defense University professor Zhang Chi (張弛) told China’s Global Times.
“The People’s Liberation Army wants to prove that we have the ability to block the import of energy resources for Taiwan, thereby having an important impact on the economy and society,” the newspaper quoted Zhang as saying.
Photo: Ritchie B. Tongo, EPA-EFE
Foreign military attaches and analysts said this element of the drills is being closely scrutinized, as such a tactic could pressure and isolate Taiwan ahead of any full-blown invasion.
State-run energy company CPC Corp, Taiwan said LNG imports had been unaffected by the drills, decrying as false news online suggestions to the contrary.
“This time there was a rather special component, the so-called quarantine or blockade, during which they practiced their blockading abilities,” said Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), director of defense strategy and resources at the government-funded Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
The drill zones portrayed in a map issued by the PLA were closer to Taiwan than in previous exercises, with all, for the first time, including areas within Taiwan’s 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone.
“All the drill zones they announced are more closely approaching Taiwan proper, and all include the 24 nautical mile zone,” said Ma Chen-kun (馬振坤), director of the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies at National Defense University.
The China Coast Guard, now the world’s largest by far, was more heavily involved in the drills than earlier, encircling the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands near the Chinese coast and operating on both sides of Taiwan proper.
Taiwan is particularly wary of China Coast Guard efforts to board civilian ships on law enforcement grounds.
Such instances could be a serious provocation that the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) would do everything to prevent, CGA Deputy Director-General Hsieh Ching-Chin (謝慶欽) said on Monday.
Previous Chinese war games have been accompanied by the release of military videos of animations of missile attacks on Taiwan.
This time, one caricatured Lai with devil-like pointed ears, in what one security source in Taiwan called an unusually personal attack on a man Beijing already detests as a “separatist.”
China also released two less slickly made videos of navy sailors commenting on weather conditions and their locations, close to the ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung.
In Taiwan, television stations show such videos as part of regular drill coverage. The government calls them part of “cognitive warfare” waged to sap confidence in its military.
Shortly after Monday’s drills began, the CGA said it detained a Chinese citizen using a rubber boat to approach Menghu Islet (猛虎嶼) near Kinmen County and opposite Xiamen, China.
The CGA said it could not rule out the incident as one of China’s “gray zone” activities threatening outlying islands during the drills.
Additional reporting by staff writer
The government should improve children’s outdoor spaces and accelerate carbon reduction programs, as the risk of heat-related injury due to high summer temperatures rises each year, Greenpeace told a news conference yesterday. Greenpeace examined summer temperatures in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Hsinchu City, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung to determine the effects of high temperatures and climate change on children’s outdoor activities, citing data garnered by China Medical University, which defines a wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) of 29°C or higher as posing the risk of heat-related injury. According to the Central Weather Administration, WBGT, commonly referred to as the heat index, estimates
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taipei placed 14th in the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) Best Student Cities 2026 list, its highest ever, according to results released yesterday. With an overall score of 89.1, the city climbed 12 places from the previous year, surpassing its previous best ranking of 17th in 2019. Taipei is “one of Asia’s leading higher-education hubs,” with strong employer activity scores and students “enjoying their experience of the city and often keen to stay after graduation,” a QS staff writer said. In addition to Taipei, Hsinchu (71st), Tainan (92nd), Taichung (113th) and Taoyuan (130th) also made QS’ list of the top 150 student cities. Hsinchu showed the
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
RSS