Chinese military practices striking key Taiwan ports and energy facilities

Japan Times

02-04-2025

China's military carried out "long-range live-fire drills" in the East China Sea on Wednesday as it held a second consecutive day of exercises around Taiwan that saw it practice simulated strikes on key ports and energy facilities on the island.
The large-scale military exercises, which Beijing said were also taking place in the middle and southern areas of the Taiwan Strait, prompted scathing criticism from the U.S. that China was fueling tensions in the region.
The Chinese military said that its ground forces had conducted long-range live-fire drills into the waters of the East China Sea as part of its Strait Thunder-2025A exercises, though it did not give an exact location for them.
Those drills involved "precision strikes on simulated targets of key ports and energy facilities, and have achieved desired effects," Senior Col. Shi Yi, spokesperson of the military's Eastern Theater Command, said in a statement.
An earlier statement said the drills were intended to "test the troops' capabilities" in areas such as "blockade and control, and precision strikes on key targets.'
A video released by the Chinese military showed scores of troops rushing out of a barracks to waiting vehicles and firing off a barrage of rockets before displaying an animated image of fires erupting across Taiwan, including in the cities of Tainan, Hualien and Taichung, all home to key military bases and ports.
At the end of the video, the words "control energy corridors, disrupt supply routes, block secret routes to docks" appear over the image of a burning Taiwan.
The Shandong aircraft carrier group also took part in the exercises to the east of Taiwan, conducting integrated naval and air operations and "multi-dimensional blockade and control" drills.
The general locations of Wednesday's drills appeared aimed at practicing cutting off shipping lanes that are crucial to the island and the global economy, experts said.
"This round of military drills' objectives are to seal off key passageways and establish comprehensive control over Taiwan's infrastructure," said Wen-Ti Sung, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. "It's Chinese military practicing disrupting international resupplying missions for Taiwan during wartime, and thereby starving Taiwan into submission."
Meng Xiangqing, a Chinese military scholar at the PLA National Defense University, also said in a video posted to China's state-run CCTV that the exercises were intended to warn Taiwan, which is vulnerable to energy supply disruptions due to its reliance on imports.
The second day of exercises came after the Chinese military on Tuesday practiced assault "joint blockade and control" in waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, as Beijing criticized Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te as a "parasite" undermining Taiwan with a push toward independence.
In Washington, the State Department lambasted the exercises and reiterated support for Taiwan, which it called a partner.
'Once again, China's aggressive military activities and rhetoric toward Taiwan only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region's security and the world's prosperity at risk,' State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement Tuesday.
'In the face of China's intimidation tactics and destabilizing behavior, the United States' enduring commitment to our allies and partners, including Taiwan, continues,' Bruce added.
Earlier Tuesday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that U.S. President Donald Trump is 'encouraging the peaceful resolution of these cross-strait issues."
The exercises followed U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's remarks in Tokyo on Sunday that Washington 'is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait.'
A TV screen broadcasts news about Chinese military drills around Taiwan, at a shopping mall in Beijing on Tuesday. |
AFP-JIJI
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said that the exercises have highlighted that China is 'openly challenging the international order and undermining regional stability,' adding that Beijing had become the world's 'biggest trouble-maker.'
Beijing conducted similar large-scale military drills under the code-name 'Joint Sword' last May and October, and China's state-run Global Times newspaper said Wednesday that the latest exercises highlighted that the country's People's Liberation Army (PLA) was normalizing its operations in the Taiwan Strait.
"From honing combat readiness and familiarizing troops with battlefield conditions to enhancing joint operational capabilities and testing weaponry, every PLA exercise serves to build strength and ensure that no battle is fought unprepared," the paper said in editorial. "Behind this 'normalization' is an increasingly sophisticated PLA operational toolbox for operations in the Taiwan Straits, with more diverse and flexible tactics."
China views self-ruled Taiwan as its 'core of core issues' and regards the island as a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary. Beijing regularly sends military aircraft and warships near and around the island and has conducted a number of large-scale exercises.
Beijing has blamed Lai, who it views as a 'separatist,' for prompting it to conduct the military exercises.
"Lai is hijacking all residents of Taiwan onto the 'Taiwan independence' bandwagon, pushing the island step by step toward a perilous situation, and becoming an unabashed troublemaker, danger creator, and war instigator," the Global Times said in its editorial.
The Taiwanese leader has stoked Beijing's anger by taking a harder line on China than his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen. This has included his labeling of China last month as a "foreign hostile force" and unveiling a raft of measures to combat espionage and infiltration by Beijing.
The latest exercises also appear to be a test for Trump's Indo-Pacific policy as Washington looks to focus on reining in China's regional ambitions.
Taiwan featured heavily during Hegseth's visit to the region, a trip that included stops in the Philippines and Japan. Washington views the two allies as crucial to countering Beijing's growing military assertiveness, and the defense secretary announced a number of new measures intended to help confront China during his trip.
Trump, however, declined to comment in late February when asked whether it was the policy of his administration to prevent China from using force to take control of Taiwan.
The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979, but has maintained unofficial relations with Taiwan and is bound by law to supply the island with weapons to help it defend itself.
But in contrast to Trump's public pronouncements, a secret Pentagon memo signed by Hegseth, and reviewed by The Washington Post, reportedly says that the U.S. is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
Experts say the latest Chinese exercises are intended to gauge just how far Washington will go.
"China is trying to test the strength of U.S. support for Taiwan," the Atlantic Council's Sung said.
"Beijing intends to generate a potential crisis situation to test whether the Trump administration will follow through or not," he said.
Ian Chong, a professor at the National University of Singapore and expert on Chinese security issues, said Beijing could be using the exercises near Taiwan "to see if it can establish a new fait accompli while the U.S. is distracted."
"Beijing will probably be waiting to see if Washington backs up its language with actions," he said. "Otherwise they may believe that the Trump administration is just bluffing."