China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has launched major military drills encircling the island of Taiwan, a step Beijing has made clear is a response to the US recently approving more than $11 billion in arms sales for Taipei.
According to CGTN, Chen Binhua, a Chinese government spokesman, said the drills were aimed at curbing “collusion between ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and external elements that endanger peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and fundamentally safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian was asked at his daily press briefing if the US arms sales were the trigger for the drills. He didn’t directly answer, but strongly condemned the deals in his response.
“Let me stress that to advance their separatist agenda, the DPP authorities are turning Taiwan into a powder keg,” Lin said, referring to Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party. “Their massive and desperate arms purchase further reveal their true nature as provocateurs, saboteurs of peace and war-mongers. Anyone who tries to arm Taiwan to contain China will only embolden the separatists and push the Taiwan Strait closer to the peril of armed conflict.”
The South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese drills, dubbed “Justice Mission 2025,” were taking place in the waters and airspace of the Taiwan Strait and in areas to the north, southwest, southeast, and east of Taiwan’s main island, and were expected to continue on Tuesday. China first conducted drills encircling Taiwan in August 2022 in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to the island.
The Trump administration announced its approval of eight separate sales to Taiwan on December 17, totaling over $11 billion, which is more than the $8.4 billion in arms sold to Taiwan during the entire Biden administration. The deals include a sale worth more than $4 billion for HIMARS rocket systems and related equipment, including Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), rockets that can be fired from the HIMARS and can reach the coast of mainland China if fired from Taiwan.
SCMP reported that footage released by China’s PLA of the drills included a simulated strike against a US-made HIMARS system. The PLA also had footage showing an H6-K bomber taking off with two YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, which are designed to target aircraft carriers.
Maj. Gen. Meng Xiangqing, who works at the PLA’s National Defense University, was quoted as saying that China has “plenty of strategic options to punish independence forces in Taiwan and to deter the US” and that the PLA “can turn the exercise into a war at any time.”
