China says military drills encircling Taiwan designed to test its ability to ‘seize power’

(CNN)- The People’s Liberation Army said on Friday that China’s military maneuvers around Taiwan are intended to see how well it can “seize power” over the island, as its soldiers began a second day of extensive training encircling its democratic neighbor.
Only a few days have passed since Taiwan swore in its new president, Lai Ching-te, who is publicly despised by Beijing for defending the island’s sovereignty and unique identity. These drills are the biggest in more than a year.
Beijing has criticized Lai’s inaugural address on Monday, calling it a “dangerous separatist” and condemned him for calling on China to stop intimidating Taiwan, a move that has intensified under Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The PLA, which is much stronger than Taiwan’s military, started their exercises on Thursday morning. They surrounded Taiwan and nearby islands with their warships and fighter jets. They did this as a “strong punishment for Taiwan’s independence forces.”The goal of these exercises, according to the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command, is to “test their ability to work together, launch attacks, and take control of important areas.” These exercises will continue on both sides of the Taiwan island chain until Friday.

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China’s military drills surround Taiwan

The largest military exercises in over a year happened after Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te, took office. Lai strongly supports Taiwan’s independence. Even though China has never ruled Taiwan, the Chinese government claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.

Most people in Taiwan do not want to be under Chinese rule. However, China’s leader, Xi Jinping, believes that Taiwan will eventually reunite with mainland China and that this cannot be delayed forever.

The two-day military exercises, involving China’s army, navy, air force, and rocket force, are happening in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan to the north, south, and east. For the first time, China’s Coast Guard is also involved, operating near Taiwan’s outlying islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, which are close to China’s coast.

On Friday, Chinese TV showed soldiers moving artillery and missile systems but did not show any live firing. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has condemned these exercises as “irrational provocations” and has sent its own forces in response. Between Thursday morning and Friday morning, Taiwan identified 49 Chinese aircraft, 35 of which crossed the unofficial boundary in the Taiwan Strait that China usually respected until recently. The ministry also spotted seven Coast Guard vessels and 19 Chinese warships near the strait.

Taiwan’s presidential office stated on Thursday that Taiwan is confident and able to protect its national security. They also said it is “regrettable to see China threatening Taiwan’s democracy and freedom, as well as regional peace and stability, with these unilateral military actions.”

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First week in office

After succeeding Tsai Ing-wen, the party’s two-term leader, Lai has had a hectic and controversial start to his presidency. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is beginning a record third consecutive term of power.
The senior politician will put his ability to handle relations with Beijing to the test for the first time with the PLA’s drills. Beijing has rejected his offer to speak and to resume cross-strait travel and student exchanges.
China’s Defense Ministry charged Lai on Friday of “playing with fire” and forcing Taiwan into “a dangerous situation of war.”

Ministry spokesman Wu Qian told reporters, “Those who play with fire will burn themselves,” employing language China regularly uses for Taiwan’s leadership. “We will press forward with our countermeasures until the complete reunification of the motherland is achieved, whenever forces advocating for “Taiwan independence” provoke us.”
At home, Lai is dealing with disarray in the legislature, where opposition parties pushing for closer connections to China control the majority and have sought for increased oversight of his administration.
Thousands of people, the majority of whom are young, have protested in the streets against the opposition’s attempt to expedite the proposed measures that would increase the power of the parliament.

However, despite Beijing’s massive display of power, things carried on as usual in Taiwan, where the 23 million people have grown accustomed to China’s military threats despite their increasing frequency and visibility in recent years.
An 88-year-old retiree, who went by the surname Liu, told CNN, “We have confidence and we are not scared of the Chinese Communist Party.”
It won’t be simple for the Chinese Communist Party to annex Taiwan if they launch an attack. The people of Taiwan do not fear conflict.
The mother, 42, went by the last name Tsai and claimed she had no idea the PLA drills were happening.
“I’m not concerned because I think leaders will put people’s pleasure first. I believe that there will be peace,” she remarked.

‘Blockading Taiwan’

State media has increased coverage of China’s military drills, which are primarily intended to convey intentions to the country’s neighbors while also catering to the country’s home audience.
Chinese military analyst Zhang Chi stated to China’s official broadcaster CCTV that the PLA’s drills were aimed at “practicing a new mode of blockading Taiwan.”
Taiwan is a remote island with poor self-sufficiency that is hung in the sea. Taiwan’s economy is focused on exports, and imports account for the majority of its energy use. It can quickly descend into economic collapse after being surrounded and blockaded, becoming a dead island, the speaker stated.

The exercises, which are aimed at Taiwan’s largest port and a key base for the island’s navy, Kaohsiung Port, are essential to the blockade, according to Zhang. In the meantime, he said, exercises to Taiwan’s east are intended to simulate shutting off the island’s oil imports, the “Taiwan independence” forces’ escape routes, and the US and its allies’ support network.
The US is required by law to provide Taiwan with armaments so that it can defend itself, and the two countries have close but informal connections.
Zhang added that by penetrating the waters close to Wuqiu and Dongyin, which are strategically significant, the exercises had made “a new breakthrough.”

They are regarded by the Taiwanese military as the first lines in defense operations across the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwanese military’s operational space was further constrained by this exercise, he claimed.
The presence of the China Coast Guard near and around the outlying islands, according to analysts, is a significant new element of the current maneuvers, which come after earlier encirclement exercises in August 2022 and April 2023.
“It is provocative that the Coast Guard and other forces are pushing into waters near those offshore islands,” stated Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the Joint Intelligence Center of US Pacific Command.

He predicted that China would keep up these actions and that they “will become the norm,” with Beijing having the ability to at any time transform a drill into an actual military operation.
The nonpartisan Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Craig Singleton, a senior China scholar, stated that China’s history of exercises near Taiwan does not portend an impending invasion threat.
In fact, Singleton added, “these exercises help to blur the lines between peace and war, so much so that future exercises could be used as a pretext for an actual invasion.”
Still, Singleton and others argue that the exercises are more of a political than a military statement.

The goal of this week’s maneuvers, dubbed Joint Sword – 2024A by China, is to “reactivate the military pressure lever to assert a degree of influence on the new (Taiwan) administration and its narrative,” according to Lionel Fatton, assistant professor of international affairs at Webster University in Geneva.
He claimed that Beijing would try to “weaken” Taiwan from the inside by increasing divides inside the island as a result of the drill pressure.
“The political system, if not the social fabric itself, will become more polarized with continuous and obvious military pressure on the island,” stated Fatton.