Analysis: China Seeking More Opportunities To Practice Taiwan Operations
The military exercises China is holding around Taiwan are some of the largest in history, but what is Beijing trying to accomplish?
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00:00 Taiwan's defense ministry says that 49 Chinese military aircraft and 19 naval ships have
00:06 taken part in the exercises.
00:08 The ministry says most of China's warships and military aircraft are operating west of
00:13 Taiwan in the Taiwan Strait.
00:15 Beijing says the drills are set to last until the end of Friday in these five areas.
00:21 Taiwan's military is also reporting about a dozen Chinese Coast Guard ships operating
00:25 near the outlying islands of Jingmen and Matsu.
00:29 The military has scrambled aircraft and deployed missile defense systems in response to the
00:34 drills.
00:35 The exercises taking place around Taiwan are some of the largest in history.
00:41 But what is China trying to accomplish?
00:43 To find out, Jaime O'Conn spoke to Brian Hart, a security analyst with the China Power Project
00:48 in Washington, D.C.
00:49 So, Brian, I want to first start off with these drills as a whole.
00:54 What is Beijing trying to say, what's the message they're trying to give off of conducting
00:59 such large-scale drills around Taiwan?
01:01 China described these as a move to punish Taiwan, and they've used some of the similar
01:07 language as the previous large-scale exercises as being aimed at separatist forces.
01:12 So it's certainly aimed in part at that.
01:15 I think they've also made clear that a lot of their responses this week have been aimed
01:19 at punishing the United States as well.
01:21 And that's something, again, we've also seen with some of the previous exercises.
01:25 When it comes to the operational level, I think a couple of things stand out to me with
01:30 these exercises.
01:31 I think the geographic scope of the zones is quite large.
01:34 I think these zones, first of all, the fact that they published the zones at all is significant.
01:40 They did not do that in April of last year during the large exercises then.
01:45 So this is the first time they've done that since the August 2022 exercises after the
01:50 Pelosi visit.
01:51 I think another thing also that is significant that didn't happen compared to the PLA exercises
01:57 in August is we did not have the large ballistic missile firings, live firings over Taiwan.
02:02 So that, of course, is one of the most provocative things that China did in 2022, and we haven't
02:07 seen that.
02:08 So I think that's significant.
02:10 Now looking more closely at the tactical level, what is China's military trying to accomplish
02:16 from an operational level with these drills surrounding Taiwan?
02:20 I think from the tactical and operational level, I think one of the biggest things that
02:25 I see is the integration of the Coast Guard here in ways that I think are new compared
02:31 to what we've seen in past exercises.
02:33 I think that's probably not that surprising given how much Coast Guard activity we've
02:37 seen in recent months after incidents like Heman.
02:40 And on that note, as you know, the exercises are labeled 2024A.
02:44 So that very much sends to me a signal that there could be a follow on B, C, or D as we
02:50 go along.
02:51 I mean, the most important thing I think at a high level view about these exercises to
02:55 me is they establish a pretty clear pattern of behavior now that when China is angry at
03:03 something that Taiwan or the United States does around Taiwan, China responds with these
03:08 large scale exercises.
03:10 That means that for them, the military has become a key messaging tool for them to show
03:15 their displeasure and show their capabilities.