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China’s recently concluded large-scale military exercises near Taiwan included at least a dozen missile firings that landed in areas around the self-ruled island state.
Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl said the roughly dozen Chinese missiles that were fired during the exercises to protest House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taipei “bracketed the island.”
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter Tuesday that 10 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) warships and 45 warplanes were detected around the island, prompting responses from interceptor aircraft and naval vessels and placing “land-based missiles” on alert. On Wednesday, the number of warships remained the same but the number of warplanes was down to 36, including Su-30 and J-11 fighters, the ministry said.
Retired Navy Capt. Carl O. Schuster, a former intelligence officer, said the military drills were carried out in six locations in the waters surrounding Taiwan over several days. The size, area and complexity of the drills reflected months of planning, with expanded aircraft involving likely recent additions to the Chinese air forces, he stated in a report on the website American Free News Network.
The exercises had two goals: Intimidate Taiwan and warn Japan and the United States not to aid Taiwan in a conflict, and rehearse key elements of the Chinese war plan for a future conflict against Taiwan.
“As such, it marked the largest PLA air-missile-maritime exercise ever conducted,” said Capt. Schuster, former director of operations at the Pacific Command’s Joint Intelligence Center in Hawaii.
At its peak, China’s military demonstration included 14 warships and 59 aircraft, including 20 aircraft that crossed the China-Taiwan median line down the Taiwan Strait. A nuclear attack submarine also took part in supporting an aircraft carrier task force led by the Shandong.
Capt. Schuster said 11 missiles were fired from three PLA Strategic Rocket Force brigades. Three of the missiles passed over Taiwan, and two missiles landed within Japan’s economic exclusion zone around 50 miles from Japan’s southernmost islands.
The missile launches prompted a halt to aircraft flights and shipping in the area.
The exercises also served as a practice blockade of the island using both land-attack and anti-ship missile targeting, along with battalion-sized amphibious operations on the Chinese coast opposite Taiwan. Military drones also took part in penetrating offshore Taiwanese islands and the northwest and southwest corners of Taiwan’s air defense zone.
The Taiwan Ministry of Defense and other government networks came under cyberattacks during the war games.
“The exercise provided some insights into China’s potential courses of action and preferences in a Sino-Taiwan conflict,” Capt. Schuster said. “It suggests Beijing would first isolate Taiwan and resort to air and missile strikes in hopes of breaking Taipei’s political will.
