Taiwan is concerned that China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is using increasingly provocative tactics to habituate Taiwan – and its immediate de facto allies, the United States and Japan – into a militarily fractious routine.
On Friday last week, Taiwan Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng told reporters at the legislature in Taipei that Chinese military movements around Taiwan were “abnormal.”
“Our initial analysis is that they are doing joint drills in September, including land, sea, air and amphibious,” Chiu said, responding to questions about a rise in Chinese military activity around the nation involving dozens of warplanes, drones, bombers and warships.
Chieh Chung, a military researcher at Taiwan’s National Policy Foundation think tank, concurred, telling Radio Free Asia, “From September 11-15, the PLA mobilized three major fleets in the Western Pacific, with a total of 17 surface ships (including the Shandong aircraft carrier strike group) to conduct large-scale confrontational exercises.”
“That’s not like previous exercises in past years. It’s indeed unusual,” Chieh said.
Meanwhile, the English-language Taiwan News reported civilian ferries were carrying out “undetermined, but likely non-commercial” operations along China’s east coast.
The six roll-on roll-off (RoRo) ferries associated with the PLA were seen on Sunday conducting drills on Chinese beaches in the Taiwan Strait, at Xiamen, a city in Fujian Province directly opposite Taiwan, the report said, drawing on a series of posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
The source, Tom Shugart, is an adjunct senior fellow with the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security.
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