China is building its capacity to rapidly turn military drills into a full-out attack, a senior Taiwan security official said, providing the government’s assessment of the strategic intent behind Beijing’s war games around Taiwan earlier this week.
China staged large-scale drills on Monday that it said were a warning to “separatist acts” following last week’s Double Ten National Day speech by President William Lai (賴清德).
Taiwan has for the past five years reported almost daily Chinese military activities around the nation, including at least four rounds of major war games and regular “joint combat readiness patrols.”
Photo: Greg Baker, AFP
“They are increasing the building up of their capacity to turn military exercises into a conflict,” the official said at a briefing in Taipei, requesting anonymity to be able to speak more frankly.
Taiwan reported a record 153 Chinese aircraft took part in the drills, and an unprecedented 25 Chinese navy and coast guard boats also approached close to Taiwan’s 39km contiguous zone.
“They approached very close to Taiwan. They increased their pressure on Taiwan and squeezed Taiwan’s response time,” the official said. “This drill presented more of a threat than ever before to Taiwan.”
China launched two missiles toward an unspecified inland area, the official said without providing further details.
“Although they did not fire missiles toward Taiwan this time, they did practice missile launches,” the official said.
China’s Ministry of National Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It vowed on Monday to take further action as needed against Taiwan, while China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on Wednesday said Beijing would never commit to renouncing the use of force over Taiwan.
The Taiwan official said their own intelligence had detected signs of China’s drills ahead of time and deployed assets, including mobile missile launchers, to strategic spots before Beijing announced the war games about dawn on Monday.
China holds three to four “joint combat readiness patrols” per month around Taiwan, the Ministry of National Defense said in a report to the legislature yesterday, describing the move as “provocation and increasing the threat to our military.”
Asked when China could hold its next war games, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said it could be at any time and under any pretext.
“This shows their hegemonic nature, which we can all see very clearly,” Koo said.
The military has already included a plan, in its annual Han Kuang war games, on ways to counter a compressed response time in case China suddenly turns its drills into a real attack, he added.
Beijing’s war games presented a “big threat,” because through the drills, China’s military was quickly building up its mobilization and combat capabilities, a Taipei-based diplomat familiar with security issues in the region said.
“The permanent state of readiness is getting higher and higher — they can switch from nothing to drills to war in no time,” the diplomat said, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.
China’s recent war games have not caused undue alarm for most Taiwanese, nor did they impact financial markets.
Asked by a lawmaker at a separate legislative session yesterday about the possibility of war with China, central bank Governor Yang Chin-long (楊金龍) said they have “appropriate preparations,” without elaborating.
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