Latest news with #StraitThunder
Russia Today
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
China showcases military drill near Taiwan (VIDEOS)
The Chinese military has published several videos showcasing a two-day exercise carried out near the self-administered Chinese island of Taiwan earlier this week. Launched by the Eastern Theater Command (ETC) of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Tuesday, the exercise, designated 'Strait Thunder', drew resources from multiple branches of the Chinese armed forces. Command spokesman Shi Yi stated that the maneuvers were focused on 'identification and verification, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention' of various targets. He described the drills as designed to prepare for a potential blockade of Taiwan. The PLA deployed the Shandong Aircraft Carrier Task Group for the exercise. The domestically produced flagship, commissioned in 2019, carries two dozen Shenyang J-15 naval fighter jets as its primary armament. These were showcased in a video released on Wednesday. .mediaplayer { min-height: 150px; } .jwplayer .jw-controls .jw-controlbar .jw-icon-cc { display: none; } .media__video_noscript { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%; } .full_transcript_text { display: block; } Source: The Chinese People's Liberation Army social media Another clip from the ETC depicted an early morning alert at military barracks, followed by the deployment of rocket launch systems for a live-fire drill. The video suggested that the weapons could be deployed to directly target Taiwan's coastline in the event of an armed conflict. .mediaplayer { min-height: 150px; } .jwplayer .jw-controls .jw-controlbar .jw-icon-cc { display: none; } .media__video_noscript { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%; } .full_transcript_text { display: block; } Source: The Chinese People's Liberation Army social media Footage released on Tuesday also featured PLA Air Force aircraft participating in the drill. .mediaplayer { min-height: 150px; } .jwplayer .jw-controls .jw-controlbar .jw-icon-cc { display: none; } .media__video_noscript { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; right: 0; bottom: 0; height: 100%; width: 100%; } .full_transcript_text { display: block; } Source: The Chinese People's Liberation Army social media Taiwan is governed by an administration rooted in nationalist forces that were defeated by the Communists during the Chinese Civil War in the 1940s. While Washington officially acknowledges Beijing's sovereignty over the island, it has provided military support to Taipei. Beijing views such arms supplies as encouraging Taiwanese officials to pursue formal independence from China. ''Taiwan independence' and peace in the Taiwan Strait are incompatible,' Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang emphasized in a statement on Wednesday. 'Pursuing 'Taiwanese independence' will only put Taiwan in a dangerous situation and plunge Taiwan compatriots into dire straits.' READ MORE: US not ready to fight China – Trump's pick for top general Beijing seeks a peaceful reunification but has warned that it is willing to use force to counteract any separatist efforts. The Defense Ministry labeled the government of incumbent President Lai Ching-te as 'crisis makers' and 'troublemakers' in its remarks about the 'Strait Thunder' exercises.
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
China probes for key target weak spots with 'paralysing' Taiwan drills
China's military drills around Taiwan this week aim to send a clear message to the island's leadership, analysts say -- in the event of war, Beijing can cut them off from the outside world and grind them into submission. And while previous drills have sought to test Taipei's response times to Chinese incursion, Beijing says this week's exercises are focused on its ability to strike key targets such as ports and energy facilities on the island. "Taiwan is vulnerable from an energy point of view and China is playing up that vulnerability," Dylan Loh at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University told AFP. The air and sea around the self-ruled island have swarmed with Chinese jets and warships in what Beijing has dubbed its "Strait Thunder" exercises -- punishment, it said, for the separatist designs of Taiwan's "parasite" leader Lai Ching-te. The drills are located in the middle and southern parts of the Taiwan strait -- a vital artery for global shipping. The island also imports nearly all of its energy supply and relies heavily on food imports, meaning in the event of a war, a blockade could paralyse the island -- a fact Beijing is keen to press. "Taiwan's depth is shallow and has no buffer zone. Taiwan is also short of resources," Major General Meng Xiangqing, professor at the PLA National Defence University, told state broadcaster CCTV. "If Taiwan loses its sea supply lines, then the island's resources will quickly be depleted, social order will fall into chaos, and people's livelihoods will be affected," he said. "In the end, it will be the regular people of the island who suffer." - 'Blockade' - One Taipei-based analyst said Beijing's drills were shifting focus, from practising ways to prevent foreign forces coming to Taiwan's aid in the event of a war, to asserting full control over the waters around the island. "The containment and control drills are designed to test the ability to restrict supply routes to Taiwan and deter foreign commercial vessels from docking," said Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at Taipei's Institute for National Defense and Security Research. "The message to international shipping is that all destinations are open -- as long as they're not Taiwan," he added. While Tuesday's exercises were focused on offensive operations against the island, Lin Ying-yu, a military expert and assistant professor at Tamkang University, said Wednesday's "centre on practising a blockade of Taiwan". Such a tactic echoes techniques used in the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which has since February 2022 also launched thousands of strikes against energy infrastructure -- to debilitating effect. A graphic shared by the military made the objective clear: declaring "paralysing strikes" were being prepared and showing missiles raining down on the island's southern port city of Kaohsiung. Taiwan's leaders, it warned, were "heading for a dead end". Another touted the army's skills in "controlling energy channels, cutting off supply arteries," -- and showed graphics of explosions on targets on the island's east, west and south. - 'Deadly surprise attack' - The drills are driven by growing fears in Beijing that its long-awaited unification with Taipei is further away than ever. Bonny Lin, Director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic & International Studies in Washington, told AFP there was "an assessment in Beijing that China needs to do more to step up the process for unification with Taiwan". That included, she said, "punishing Taiwan for any perceived provocative activities and more firmly countering potential foreign intervention to assist Taiwan". Beijing is also seeking to highlight just how unpredictable it can be in attacking the island. "The opponent won't know which card we will play, including when we'll play it," Fu Zhengnan, an expert at the Chinese military's Academy of Military Science, told CCTV. "The PLA is becoming more and more like an unpredictable magician," he said. This week's drills come just days after US defence chief Pete Hegseth vowed the United States would ensure "deterrence" across the Taiwan Strait in the face of China's "aggressive and coercive" actions. Wen-Ti Sung, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, said "Straight Thunder" was testing that claim. "China wants to impose stress test after stress test and create an opportunity where the Trump administration will have to respond," he said. sam-oho/je/fox
Yahoo
02-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
China carries out live-fire exercises in drill encircling Taiwan
China's military conducted a live-fire exercise in the Taiwan Strait to simulate strikes on key ports and energy facilities, it said on Wednesday. The exercise, codenamed "Strait Thunder", is an escalation of military drills China held on Tuesday around Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as its territory. Taiwan's presidential office said on Tuesday that it "strongly condemns" the "military provocations", which have become increasingly routine amid souring cross-strait ties. The drills come as China sharpened its rhetoric against Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te, labelling him a "parasite" and "separatist". Lai had earlier this month referred to China as a "foreign hostile force". The drills were meant to be a "serious warning and powerful containment of 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces", said a statement from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA). It also released a series of cartoons depicting Lai as a "parasite" that was "poisoning Taiwan island" and - along with an image of Lai being grilled over a fire - "courting ultimate destruction". Another video by the PLA, titled "Subdue demons and vanquish evils", likened the military's capabilities to the magical powers of the Monkey King, a mythical Chinese character. In recent days, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People's Daily published a series of op-eds denouncing Lai as a "troublemaker" and "warmonger". "Facts have fully proven that Lai Ching-te is a vicious war maker," read one of the articles published on Wednesday. "Subdue demons and vanquish evils, use force to stop war." While the trigger for this week's drills were not spelled out, Chinese authorities and state media have referenced a slew of policies announced by Lai last month to counter influence and infiltration operations by Beijing - where Lai used the "foreign hostile force" term. However, the timing of the exercises, coming weeks after Lai's announcement, suggests that Chinese authorities wanted to wait for the conclusion of meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and international business leaders, along with the annual Boao business summit that wrapped up on 28 March. They also come with the world's attention turned elsewhere, as global markets brace for the Trump administration's latest round of tariffs. In response to China's latest military drills, the White House said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump was "emphasising the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait". On Wednesday, the US State Department reaffirmed its "enduring commitment" to Taiwan. During his recent visit to Asia, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth also repeatedly criticised China's aggression in the region and pledged to provide "robust, ready and credible deterrence", including in the Taiwan Strait. However, the PLA seems to be moving towards a situation where such exercises around Taiwan occur regularly rather than in response to any specific perceived provocation. Some experts see the drills as a dress rehearsal for a possible real blockade in an attempt to overthrow the government in Taipei in the future. In the words of the Chinese military this week, they serve as a practice run "close in on Taiwan from all directions". In addition, analysts believe that Beijing has been increasing the frequency and size of its military exercises as a way of trying to increase pressure on Taiwan's population to eventually accept an annexation by China as inevitable. This is despite the fact that opinion polls have routinely shown that the vast majority of Taiwanese people firmly oppose a takeover of their democratically governed island group by China's Communist Party. Taiwanese officials have warned that China may stage more military drills later this year, on dates like the anniversary of Lai taking office or Taiwan's National Day in October. However, in Taiwan, movements by the PLA can also provide an opportunity. Each time China conducts such war games, Taiwan's military chiefs have said that they can study the manoeuvres in order to better prepare their own forces for any real attack. What's behind China-Taiwan tensions? China's rhetoric turns dangerously real for Taiwanese
BBC News
02-04-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
China military says it held live-fire drill in Taiwan Strait
China's military conducted a live-fire exercise in the Taiwan Strait to simulate strikes on key ports and energy facilities, it said on exercise, codenamed "Strait Thunder", is an escalation of military drills China held on Tuesday around Taiwan, the democratic island Beijing claims as its presidential office said on Tuesday that it "strongly condemns" the "military provocations", which have become increasingly routine amid souring cross-strait drills come as China sharpened its rhetoric against Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te, labelling him a "parasite" and "separatist". Lai had earlier this month referred to China as a "foreign hostile force". The drills were meant to be a "serious warning and powerful containment of 'Taiwan independence' separatist forces", said a statement from China's People's Liberation Army (PLA).It also released a series of cartoons depicting Lai as a "parasite" that was "poisoning Taiwan island" and - along with an image of Lai being grilled over a fire - "courting ultimate destruction".Another video by the PLA, titled "Subdue demons and vanquish evils", likened the military's capabilities to the magical powers of the Monkey King, a mythical Chinese recent days, the Chinese Communist Party newspaper People's Daily published a series of op-eds denouncing Lai as a "troublemaker" and "warmonger"."Facts have fully proven that Lai Ching-te is a vicious war maker," read one of the articles published on Wednesday. "Subdue demons and vanquish evils, use force to stop war."While the trigger for this week's drills were not spelled out, Chinese authorities and state media have referenced a slew of policies announced by Lai last month to counter influence and infiltration operations by Beijing - where Lai used the "foreign hostile force" term. However, the timing of the exercises, coming weeks after Lai's announcement, suggests that Chinese authorities wanted to wait for the conclusion of meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and international business leaders, along with the annual Boao business summit that wrapped up on 28 also come with the world's attention turned elsewhere, as global markets brace for the Trump administration's latest round of tariffs. In response to China's latest military drills, the White House said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump was "emphasising the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait". On Wednesday, the US State Department reaffirmed its "enduring commitment" to his recent visit to Asia, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth also repeatedly criticised China's aggression in the region and pledged to provide "robust, ready and credible deterrence", including in the Taiwan the PLA seems to be moving towards a situation where such exercises around Taiwan occur regularly rather than in response to any specific perceived experts see the drills as a dress rehearsal for a possible real blockade in an attempt to overthrow the government in Taipei in the the words of the Chinese military this week, they serve as a practice run "close in on Taiwan from all directions".In addition, analysts believe that Beijing has been increasing the frequency and size of its military exercises as a way of trying to increase pressure on Taiwan's population to eventually accept an annexation by China as is despite the fact that opinion polls have routinely shown that the vast majority of Taiwanese people firmly oppose a takeover of their democratically governed island group by China's Communist officials have warned that China may stage more military drills later this year, on dates like the anniversary of Lai taking office or Taiwan's National Day in in Taiwan, movements by the PLA can also provide an time China conducts such war games, Taiwan's military chiefs have said that they can study the manoeuvres in order to better prepare their own forces for any real attack.
