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.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS