China’s military has started a new round of war games with ships and aircraft near Taiwan, just days after the self-ruled democratic island marked its National Day.
The exercises, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, began early on Monday and were a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”, said Beijing, which claims the island as its own.
Captain Li Xi, the spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, said the drills were focussed on “sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas” and would also involve an “assault on maritime and ground targets”.
The drills, he added, were a “legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity”, and gave no date for their conclusion.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defence expressed its strong condemnation of China’s “irrational and provocative actions” and said it had “dispatched appropriate forces to respond accordingly to protect freedom and democracy, and defend the sovereignty” of Taiwan.
As of 8am (00:00 GMT), it said some 25 PLA aircraft and a total of 11 ships, including seven from the navy, were found operating around Taiwan.
President William Lai Ching-te promised to protect the island from external threats.
“I would like to reassure my compatriots that the government will continue to defend the democratic and free constitutional system, protect democratic Taiwan, and safeguard national security,” he wrote on Facebook.
In recent years, China has stepped up its military activity around Taiwan, which it claims as its own. The latest drills come just days after Lai gave his first National Day address on October 10, promising he would resist any “annexation or encroachment” and that Beijing had no right to represent the island’s 23 million people.
“It was widely anticipated that the PLA [People’s Liberation Army] would conduct military exercises following Lai’s National Day speech,” Bonnie Glaser, the managing director of the German Marshall Fund’s Indo-Pacific programme, told Al Jazeera. “The drills have the effect of demonstrating to the domestic audience that the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] has the resolve to defend Chinese territory. They are also intended to warn Taipei and Washington not to cross Beijing’s red lines.”
‘It will pass’
Beijing has not ruled out the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control and said the drills were a warning to the “separatist acts of Taiwan independence forces”.
It has condemned Lai, who was elected in January and took office in May, as a “separatist” and previously staged military exercises, Joint Sword-2024A, three days after his inauguration.
Lev Nachman, a professor of political science at the National Taiwan University in Taipei, said China’s latest actions were no surprise.
“While military threats are no small matter, we all knew the PRC [People’s Republic of China] would respond to Lai’s Double Ten Day speech with military threats of some sort,” Nachman wrote on X. “There is no need to panic or overreact. We all saw this coming. It will pass quickly.”
In his October 10 speech, Lai had also appeared to reach out to Beijing, expressing hope for “healthy and orderly dialogue and exchanges”, and urging Beijing to use its influence to help resolve conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.
But China’s state-run Global Times, in an analysis of the speech published on Sunday, quoted analysts describing Lai’s speech as a “poison pill wrapped in cellophane”.
Other state media also accused Lai of promoting a “two-state” theory to describe Taiwan and China after he noted last week the different ages of the two governments. The People’s Republic of China, which celebrated its National Day on October 1, is 75 years old, while the Republic of China, which celebrated on October 10 and is headquartered in Taipei, turned 113.
Kuang-shun Yang, the co-founder of the Taipei-based think tank US-Taiwan Watch, said the drills could be China testing the waters internationally at a time of global upheaval, citing the Russia-Ukraine war, the conflicts in the Middle East and threats from North Korea.
“We can see that the world has a lot of regional flashpoints that are ongoing and maybe Beijing sees this as … an opportunity to test their will and see if the world’s support for Taiwan is strong enough,” he told Al Jazeera.
Beijing has sought to erase Taiwan from the international stage, blocking it from global forums and poaching its few remaining formal diplomatic allies.
The United States remains Taiwan’s main international supporter and supplier of weapons.
It said it was “seriously concerned” at the latest military drills.
“The PRC response with military provocations to a routine annual speech is unwarranted and risks escalation,” State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.
“We call on the PRC to act with restraint and to avoid any further actions that may undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region, which is essential to regional peace and prosperity and a matter of international concern.”
With reporting from Erin Hale in Taipei
