China’s increasingly “routinized” drills could delay a response to actual military action by desensitizing Taiwan and its partners to Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) activity, a former US Department of State official said on Monday.
Reporters asked former deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia Heino Klinck about China using US stopovers by President William Lai (賴清德) to justify military exercises near Taiwan.
In addition to conveying its displeasure to Taiwan, the expanding scale, scope and regularity of China’s exercises had “more nefarious implications,” Klinck said.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“The more routinized these drills become, the less attention they may draw, which could impact how indications and warning of actual imminent military action may be interpreted, thus reducing response times,” he said.
Moreover, the drills provide opportunities for the PLA to rehearse actions that could ultimately be used in a real operation against Taiwan, he said.
However, launching exercises in response to Lai’s US stopovers “may well be counterproductive diplomatically” for China, he said.
“China’s pretext for these provocative military moves ring hollow,” Klinck said, adding that the international community would view any action as “coercive in nature.”
Mark Montgomery, a retired US rear admiral, expressed similar unease about the increasing sophistication of Chinese drills, which he said provided an “operational education” for the PLA.
“The greatest concern is the quality and depth of the PLA exercises this year — they are larger, more complex and more pointed in their direct threat to Taiwan’s security,” Montgomery told reporters.
However, while China was “frustrated and angry” about Lai’s trip, Montgomery said that the PLA might have launched exercises this winter “no matter what.”
A State Department spokesperson told reporters that Lai’s “routine transit” should not be used as “a pretext for military pressure.”
The US is closely monitoring PLA activity near Taiwan, the spokesperson said, adding that Beijing should “act with restraint.”
On Monday, China designated seven areas east of Zhejiang Province and its Fujian Province as “temporary reserved areas” of airspace until today, typically indicating airspace reserved for specific military activities.
Reuters reported that a senior Taiwanese security official said that China had deployed nearly 90 navy and coast guard ships near Taiwan, southern Japan, and the East and South China seas, with naval vessels comprising two-thirds of the fleet.
The deployment exceeds the scale of earlier “Joint Sword” drills, the official said.
In response to the PLA’s actions, Taiwan’s military launched war-preparedness drills on Monday at key locations nationwide and is collaborating with the Coast Guard Administration on countermeasures, they said.
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