China engages in 'total encirclement' exercise of Taiwan

Sébastien Le Belzic with AFP 14:09 pm, April 08, 2023

China is conducting a "total encirclement" exercise of the island on Saturday in the Taiwan Strait on the first day of military maneuvers that will last until Monday, in retaliation for a meeting between the Taiwanese president and a senior US official. "Today's exercise focuses on the ability to take control of the sea, airspace and information ... to create deterrence and total encirclement" of Taiwan, Chinese state television said Saturday after the military announced the operations.

Warships, missile speedboats, fighter jets, tankers and jammers are mobilized. The maneuvers "serve as a serious warning against collusion between separatist forces seeking +Taiwan independence+ and external forces, as well as their provocative activities," Chinese military spokesman Shi Yi said earlier.

The exact location of these exercises is not yet known. The narrowest part between the Chinese coast and the island is about 130 kilometers wide. These operations, which also include "patrols", are "necessary to safeguard China's sovereignty and territorial integrity", the spokesman said.

"Scoring points"

Live-fire drills will be held Monday in the Taiwan Strait near the coast of Fujian, the province facing the island, local maritime authorities said. These exercises, which have an "operational" dimension, are intended to demonstrate that the Chinese army will be ready "if provocations intensify" to "settle once and for all the question of Taiwan", said military expert Song Zhongping.

These maneuvers follow the meeting Wednesday during a stopover in California between the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, and the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy. Beijing had promised "firm and forceful measures" in retaliation. China views with dissatisfaction the rapprochement in recent years between the Taiwanese authorities and the United States, which despite the absence of official relations provide the island with substantial military support.

For the Chinese government, these military exercises are "a necessity" after an affront to "score points politically" with the population, said James Char, an expert on the Chinese army at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. However, an escalation of the same intensity as that of last summer seems a priori ruled out, according to Mr. Char who stresses that Beijing, which is trying to "warm" its relations with Europe, waited for the "end" of a state visit by French President Emmanuel Macron to launch its exercises.

"Authoritarian expansionism"

In August, China launched unprecedented military maneuvers around Taiwan and fired missiles when Democrat Nancy Pelosi, who preceded McCarthy at the House perch, visited the island. China considers Taiwan (population 23 million) as one of its provinces that it has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

The United States recognized the People's Republic of China in 1979 and should theoretically have no official contact with the Republic of China (Taiwan) under Beijing's "one-China principle." Tsai Ing-wen on Saturday denounced China's "authoritarian expansionism" and assured that Taiwan would "continue to work with the United States and other countries (...) to defend the values of freedom and democracy."

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it was "monitoring the situation" and instructed the military to "respond" to Chinese military activities. Eight Chinese warships and 42 fighter jets were detected by Taipei while 29 aircraft entered southwest of Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (Adiz) that straddles part of mainland China's.

In Pingtan, the closest point to Taiwan in southeastern China, tourists observed the rough waters of the sea but no notable military activity was visible. Others posed seemingly in front of a giant stamp depicting the Chinese coasts and Taiwan, an iconic landmark of Pingtan.