China simulates precision strikes on Taiwan

Editor’s note: This story was updated on April 9th.

CHINA’S ARMED FORCES simulated “precision strikes” on Taiwan on April 9th in the second of three days of military drills around the island. The exercises follow a meeting between Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, and the speaker of America’s House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, in California on April 5th. China had promised “resolute counter-measures” if the meeting—the first between a speaker and a Taiwanese president on American soil—went ahead.

Chinese state television reported that multiple units “carried out simulated joint precision strikes on key targets on Taiwan island and the surrounding sea areas, and continue to maintain an offensive posture around the island.” Senior Colonel Zhao Xiaozhuo of China’s Academy of Military Sciences told the state-run Global Times newspaper that this was the first time China had described drills in such a way, adding that “key targets” could include infrastructure such as runways and military logistics facilities.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command, which oversees Taiwan, announced the exercises on April 8th and said they would include “combat-readiness patrols” and drills in the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from mainland China, and in waters and airspace to the north, south and east of Taiwan. It described the exercises, dubbed “United Sharp Sword”, as “a serious warning against the Taiwan separatist forces’ collusion with external forces, and a necessary move to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” Chinese state media said the drills involved destroyers, frigates, rocket forces, missile speedboats, fighters, bombers and jamming aircraft, and aimed to create a “deterrence posture in all directions encircling the island.”

By 4pm on April 9th Taiwan’s defence ministry said it had detected 11 Chinese warships and 70 fighter jets and other warplanes in the Taiwan Strait. It said half of those aircraft had crossed the strait’s median line (the de-facto maritime border). The ministry reported similar numbers on the first day of the drills, which it said it was monitoring with ships, aircraft and shore-based missile systems. It accused China of undermining regional stability.

Earlier in the week Taiwanese and Japanese officials said that China had deployed an aircraft-carrier strike group to waters about 200 miles east of Taiwan. An American carrier strike group also conducted joint exercises with Japanese forces in the East China Sea and Pacific from April 4th to 6th, according to Japan’s defence ministry.

So far, China’s exercises appear to be less extensive than those it staged in August after the House speaker at the time, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taiwan. After that trip China fired missiles into waters around Taiwan, simulated a partial blockade of the island and suspended military, climate and other talks with the American government. Still, America and its allies remain on alert for any escalation or extension of the latest drills.

They are also wary of a Chinese threat to board Taiwanese civilian vessels. On April 5th the maritime-safety administration of China’s Fujian province, which lies opposite Taiwan, announced a three-day patrol-and-inspection operation in the Taiwan Strait that it said would include moves to board cargo and construction ships for “on-site inspections”. The Taiwanese authorities said that they had told relevant shipping operators to refuse such requests and notify Taiwan’s coastguard to render assistance. But by April 9th there had been no reports of any Chinese boarding of Taiwanese vessels.

China has pledged to take back Taiwan, which it sees as part of its territory, ever since Nationalist forces fled there in 1949 after the Communists won a civil war. Chinese officials accuse Ms Tsai of promoting Taiwan’s independence by meeting Mr McCarthy. She denies that, and American officials have urged China not to overreact. America is obliged by law to help Taiwan defend itself. President Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to intervene directly if China attacks the island.

China’s relatively restrained response to the meeting so far appears to reflect a desire by its leader, Xi Jinping, to repair some of the damage done to his country’s economy and international relations during three years of covid-19-induced isolation. In recent months Mr Xi’s diplomatic charm offensive has centred on Europe, where he hopes to encourage economic re-engagement and to undermine American efforts to limit his country’s access to Western technology.

The announcement of the Chinese drills came one day after France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, left China following meetings with Mr Xi. The European pair urged Mr Xi to put pressure on Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Mrs von der Leyen also called for stability in the Taiwan Strait. Mr Xi said it was “wishful thinking” to expect China to compromise on Taiwan.

China’s response may also indicate wariness about inflaming public opinion in Taiwan ahead of a presidential election there in 2024. Chinese officials are hoping that will result in victory for the opposition Nationalist Party, or KMT, which has recently advocated closer ties with the mainland. Taiwan’s last KMT president, Ma Ying-jeou, completed a 12-day visit to the mainland on April 7th. He was the first former president of Taiwan to make such a trip.

As well as Ms Tsai’s meeting, China’s exercise coincided with a visit to Taiwan by a bipartisan American congressional delegation led by Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House foreign affairs committee. At a lunch for his delegation on April 8th, hosted by Ms Tsai, Mr McCaul pledged to help provide training for Taiwan’s armed forces and to speed up the delivery of American weapons. The de facto American embassy in Taiwan said on April 9th that America was monitoring the drills and was “comfortable and confident” it had sufficient resources and capabilities regionally to ensure peace and stability. ■

IMAGE: AFP / TAIWAN MINISTRY OF NATIONAL DEFENSE