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.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
RSS