China’s military has launched a new round of military exercises around Taiwan in its latest “warning” to Taipei’s democratic government.
The People’s Liberation Army said on Tuesday that the drills served as a “powerful deterrent” to “separatist forces” advocating Taiwanese independence.
The exercises are intended to test the “combat readiness” of China’s army, navy, air force, and rocket force and their ability to work together during a joint military operation, the Eastern Theater Command said in a statement.
The drills will be carried out from multiple directions around Taiwan and focus on “sea and air combat readiness patrols, seizing comprehensive control, sea and land strikes, and blocking key areas and roads,” the Eastern Theater Command said.
The military exercises were blasted by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense, who deployed military vessels and aircraft to monitor the situation, according to Taiwanese media.
China considers Taiwan, a self-ruled democracy, part of its territory and has pledged to take control of the island by force if necessary.
Wen-ti Sung, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, told Al Jazeera that the military exercises seemed to be focused on containing and isolating Taiwan.
“One of the scenarios that analysts have always been concerned about is the prospect of the Chinese military launching a quarantine or an embargo against waterways near Taiwan and how that may enable the PLA to squeeze Taiwan and starve Taiwan and thereby force it into submission,” he said.
“This time around, that very maneuver of quarantine of key passageways around Taiwan is one of the main items on the PLA to-do list.”
Beijing’s Communist Party views Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te and his Democratic Progressive Party as “separatists”, and has increasingly staged military exercises in response to their activities.
The latest round of military exercises follows a speech made by Lai last month when he called Beijing a “foreign hostile force” and laid out a 17-point plan to curtail its ongoing political infiltration, espionage, and influence operations in Taiwan.
The PLA also took the unusual step of releasing multimedia along with the announcement, including a short animation depicting Lai as a “parasite poisoning Taiwan” and then held to a fire with a set of chopsticks.
Beijing’s Taiwan Affairs Office blasted Lai in a statement on Monday, and accused the president of stirring up “anti-China sentiment” and intensifying tension in the Taiwan Strait.
Despite the uptick in military exercises, Sung told Al Jazeera that Lai’s “cross-strait policy towards China enjoys majority support in Taiwan” and Beijing’s response to his actions are seen as “regrettable.”
The latest public opinion polling by the Taiwanese website My Formosa found that public trust in Lai and overall approval rose to 6.2 percent and 7 percent, respectively, following his “17 point speech.”
Trust in the president now stands at 56.7 percent with his approval rating at 55.6 percent, in the latest polls.
The website linked the uptick to Lai’s speech rather than Taiwan’s tumultuous domestic politics.
China last held a small round of military exercises near Taiwan in December after Lai visited Taiwan’s few diplomatic allies in the Pacific and transited through Hawaii and Guam, according to the Prospect Foundation, a Taiwan-based think tank.
Larger drills were held in May and October 2024 to coincide with Lai’s inauguration and Taiwan’s national day.
Beijing has stepped up its use of military drills since August 2022, when then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made a historic trip to Taiwan as the highest-ranking US official to visit in 25 years.