Analyst says Chinese drills near Taiwan directed at U.S.

Bangkok Post Group

China fired rockets into waters off Taiwan on Tuesday (December 30), showcased new assault ships and dismissed prospects of U.S. and allied intervention to block any future attack by Beijing to take control of the island in its most extensive war games to date. - REUTERS

Transcript

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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