00:00As China fired rockets into waters of Taiwan on Tuesday in its most extensive war games to date,
00:08analysts said the move demonstrated China's confidence in pressing its military advantage.
00:14The drills rehearsing a blockade come days after the U.S. announced a record $11.1 billion arms
00:21package to Taiwan. For the first time, China's military said the drills were aimed at deterring
00:27outside intervention. Colin Koh is a senior fellow at Singapore's S. Roger Random School of
00:34International Studies. It is unlike in the past when these exercises were being described as
00:40rather generic, routine exercises. For example, now if you look at the course coming out from Beijing,
00:48it is very clear that the explicit aim is to blockade the key installations, in this case the
00:55ports, for instance. So this is of course directed at Taiwan and of course directed at the U.S. that
01:02all attempts to try to reinforce Taiwan will fail. A senior Taiwan security official told Reuters that
01:09China appeared to be simulating striking land-based targets, such as the U.S.-made HIMARS rocket
01:16system. That's a mobile artillery system with a range of about 186 miles that could hit coastal
01:23targets in southern China. Taiwan's President Lai Qingte said that frontline troops were primed to defend the
01:31island. Lyle Goldstein, Asia Program Director at Defense Priorities, said this is an arms race Taiwan cannot
01:39possibly win. My sense is that China is feeling rather confident. They have had, let's say, a string of
01:46successes. For example, sort of going toe-to-toe with the United States during the trade war, the whole
01:53situation with rare earths and so forth. Taiwan sit alongside key commercial shipping and aviation routes,
02:00with about $2.5 trillion in trade moving through the Taiwan Strait each year. A Pentagon report released
02:08last week last week said the U.S. military believed China was preparing to be able to win a fight for
02:14Taiwan by 2027. It also said U.S. military planners believed Beijing was contemplating carrying out
02:22strikes from China to take Taiwan by brute force if needed.
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