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The PLA drills will be conducted to the southwest of Taiwan and will run until Tuesday. Photo: Xinhua
ChinaMilitary

China’s military to hold live-fire drills off Taiwan as US delegation visits the island

  • Six-day exercise begins on Thursday, as former American officials are due to meet President Tsai Ing-wen in Taipei
  • Drills will be conducted near disputed Pratas Islands in what is seen as a ‘declaration of sovereignty’ and warning to foreign nations
US-China relations
Kinling Lo
Kinling Loin Beijing
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China’s military will begin live-fire drills on Thursday in waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, as an unofficial US delegation visits the self-ruled island.

The six-day exercise will be carried out to the south of the Penghu archipelago in the Taiwan Strait, the Guangdong Maritime Safety Administration announced on Wednesday.

It has set out a no-go zone for vessels in an area near the islands while the live-fire drills are under way until Tuesday.

The People’s Liberation Army exercise comes as Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen is due to meet a visiting American delegation on Thursday morning.
Former US senator Chris Dodd and former deputy secretaries of state Richard Armitage and James Steinberg travelled to Taipei on Tuesday for a three-day visit. They were sent by President Joe Biden, with the White House describing the trip as a “personal signal” of his commitment to Taiwan and its democracy.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of its territory, to be brought under its control by force if necessary, and it has repeatedly warned Washington over its closer ties with Taipei. Tensions have been rising across the Taiwan Strait and in the region, with both China and the US stepping up military activities in disputed waters.

The exercises will be held close to the Pratas Islands in the South China Sea, which are controlled by Taiwan. Photo: CNA

Kang Lin, a research fellow at Hainan University in southern China, said he did not believe the latest drills were specifically prompted by the visiting US delegation, but they were “pointing in that direction”.

He said they were to be held close to the Pratas Islands, or Dongsha in Chinese, which are controlled by Taiwan but also claimed by Beijing in the larger South China Sea territorial dispute.

“The drills are clearly a declaration of sovereignty, which points to both the claims in the South China Sea as well as to Taiwan. It also acts as a clear warning to foreign countries not to intervene in these two issues,” Kang said.

But military affairs commentator Zhou Chenming said the PLA regularly conducted drills in the region around this time of year since the weather conditions would not be suitable from July to September.

“These drills are usually planned well ahead,” said Zhou, who is based in Beijing. “Every year there are a lot of drills in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait from April to June, but it has become more public now because China has started live-fire exercises, which raises their profile.”

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The drills come after Beijing sent 25 fighter jets and bombers into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone on Monday – the largest ever incursion reported by the island’s defence ministry.
On Tuesday, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said the warplanes were deployed to send a message that “we are determined to stop Taiwan independence, and to stop Taiwan from working with the US. We are doing it with action”.

Meanwhile, state broadcaster CCTV aired a report on Tuesday on a recent 36-hour Chinese air force and navy drill focused on “surveillance and warning” training in the Taiwan Strait and East China Sea.

The territorial dispute between China and Japan in the East China Sea has again flared, with Tokyo raising concerns over a new coastguard law enacted by Beijing that allows Chinese ships to fire on foreign vessels it sees as illegally entering its waters.
Tokyo has also moved closer to Washington on regional security issues. On Wednesday, a US surveillance aircraft took off from Okinawa in Japan and flew over the East China Sea, according to the Beijing-based South China Sea Strategic Situation Probing Initiative. China’s Liaoning aircraft carrier strike group sailed through the waterway between Okinawa and Miyako Island on its way to the Pacific earlier this month.

Additional reporting by Laura Zhou

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