TAIPEI, Taiwan — China carried out mock missile attacks and sent fighter jets and bombers equipped with live ammunition on Friday, state CCTV reported, as part of drills that Beijing says are intended to punish Taiwan’s new president, Lai Ching-te.
China was testing its ability to “seize power” and control key areas of Taiwan, he added, and the bombers conducted mock attacks in multiple attack formations in waters east of Taiwan and coordinated with naval ships.
The two-day drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan-controlled island groups off China’s coast began just three days after Lai took office on Monday. Taiwan has condemned China’s actions.
China considers democratically ruled Taiwan its territory and has denounced Lai as a “separatist.” It sharply criticized Lai’s inaugural speech in which he called on Beijing to stop intimidation and said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait were “not subordinate to each other.”
The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command said the drill, dubbed “United Sword 2024A”, was designed to “test the ability to jointly seize power, launch joint attacks and occupy key areas”.
“The measure is entirely reasonable and legal, and necessary to counter the arrogance of ‘Taiwan independence’ and deter interference and intervention by external forces,” said Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s defence ministry.
China’s coast guard said on Friday it conducted “law enforcement training” in waters east of Taiwan, focusing on verification and identification, warning and repelling drills.
According to China’s state-run CCTV, the Chinese warship Nantong conducted combat-ready patrol and practical training missions in the Taiwan Strait, while the Taiwanese warship Cheng He followed 0.6 nautical miles behind.
A spokesman for the US Navy’s 7th Fleet said it monitors “all activity” in the Indo-Pacific and takes its responsibility to deter aggression there “very seriously.”
Taiwan and the United States do not have formal diplomatic ties and Washington formally recognizes Beijing, but the United States is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and is Taiwan’s most important international backer.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Ka-long, speaking in Taipei, said Taiwan would not succumb to pressure.
“We will not make any concessions because this Chinese military exercise concerns the development of Taiwan’s democracy,” he said.
China’s Theater Command released an animated video on its social media WeChat account on Friday showing missiles being fired at Taiwan from the ground, air and sea, causing fireballs to slam into the cities of Taipei, Kaohsiung and Hualien. China Central Television later reported that China had carried out a mock missile attack on Taiwan using dozens of missiles.
At the end of the animation, the words “Sacred weapon that kills independence” were written in red in traditional Chinese characters used in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s military was mobilized to monitor and track Chinese forces.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry released photos on Friday showing F-16 fighter jets carrying live missiles patrolling the skies.
Photos of Chinese coast guard vessels and a Jiangdao-class corvette were also released, but it was not clear where the photos were taken.
The ministry said it had spotted 49 Chinese military aircraft, 19 naval aircraft and seven coast guard vessels as of 6 a.m. Friday (6 p.m. Eastern Time), with 35 of the aircraft crossing the strait’s median line, which once served as an informal barrier but is not recognized by China.
According to a map provided by the ministry, the closest Chinese aircraft came to Taiwan’s coast was 40 nautical miles from Keelung, a northern city and naval base.
Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan’s 23 million people can decide their own future and rejects Beijing’s claims of sovereignty.
Taiwan is well accustomed to Chinese military threats, and the recent drills have not caused undue anxiety on the island, with life continuing as normal.
Taiwanese media covered the training but also devoted much time to the ongoing drama over contentious parliamentary reforms that have led thousands to take to the streets in protest.
On China’s tightly regulated social media site Weibo, “Eastern Theater Command” was the most searched term and the majority of comments were in support of the exercises. Another hot topic was “return of Taiwan.”
Analysts, regional diplomats and Taiwanese officials said the exercises so far have been smaller in scale than similar exercises in 2022 and were widely expected by Taiwanese and foreign officials. They said the drills still pose risks of accidents and miscalculation.
