Chinese carrier drills and stepped-up incursions into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone in the past few weeks are meant to send a message to Washington to stand down and back off, security sources in Taipei said.
The increased activity — which China, unusually, described as “combat drills” on Wednesday — has raised alarm in both Taipei and Washington, although security officials do not see it as a sign of an imminent attack.
Rather, at least some of the exercises are practicing “access denial” maneuvers to prevent foreign forces from coming to Taipei’s defense in a war, one official familiar with Taiwan’s security planning said.
Photo: Reuters
“China claimed that the drills are near Taiwan, but judging by their location it’s actually meant for the US military,” said the official in Taiwan, speaking on condition of anonymity.
As China sailed an aircraft carrier group near Taiwan last week, its air force simulated attacks on US ships, although no US Navy vessels were known to be in the area at the time, the source said.
The US Navy has been carrying out regular transits of the Taiwan Strait.
One Western security source said that the almost daily flights by Chinese anti-submarine aircraft in the northernmost part of the South China Sea were probably a response to US missions there, including by submarines, or to show the Pentagon that China can hunt for US submarines.
“They are not chasing Taiwanese subs,” the source said, pointing to Taiwan’s own tiny fleet of four, two of which date from World War II.
The US Navy does not give details of any submarine patrols near Taiwan or in the South China Sea.
US President Joe Biden’s White House has maintained a tough-on-China stance inherited from former US president Donald Trump’s administration. That has included more visible support for Taiwan, angering China.
Two US military officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that although the US was concerned about Chinese activity around Taiwan, there was no sense of an imminent attack.
“For the past five years, China has been the centerpiece of the United States’ national defense strategy. So of course we’re concerned,” one official said.
The Ministry of National Defense said it was keeping a close watch on “enemy movements” and that it has combat plans to deal with scenarios for a Chinese attack. It did not elaborate.
The Chinese Ministry of National Defense and the US Navy’s Seventh Fleet did not respond to requests for comment.
Although China has escalated its rhetoric in response to US warships passing through the Taiwan Strait, a US defense official said that Washington had not seen any kind of operational military escalation by the Chinese in response.
In a statement, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the US has “swelled the arrogance of Taiwan independence forces.”
Washington “bears an inescapable responsibility for tensions in the Taiwan Strait,” it added.
A senior US administration official said that regardless of who Beijing’s incursions were aimed at, their effect was direct “intimidation and coercion” of Taiwan.
“Our operations there have been in a pretty steady state consistently,” the official said. “So I don’t think there’s an increased pace of US military operations that are necessarily driving what Beijing is doing. That feels a little bit like an excuse there for what they’re doing.”
The US Navy this month took the rare step of publishing a photograph on its main Web site of a US warship in the Philippine Sea watching China’s Liaoning carrier.
Raising the stakes, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy said for the first time last week that carrier drills near Taiwan would become routine.
Another US warship sailed through the Taiwan Strait two days after China’s announcement of its carrier maneuvers, part of what the Pentagon refers to as “routine” transits that have prompted Beijing to accuse Washington of causing regional tensions.
“China’s top concern in any Taiwan contingency would be preventing or at least blunting armed intervention by the US,” said Greg Poling, a maritime security expert at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies. “So demonstrating increased ability to deny US access is a coercive message sent to both Washington and Taipei.”
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS