Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported that a record 16 Chinese warships were observed in waters surrounding Taiwan during a 24-hour period last week. This comes amidst growing concerns about China's intimidation campaign against Taipei, carried out by the ruling Communist Party, CNN reports.
The People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) engaged in this activity within the 24-hour period ending at 6 a.m. local time on Saturday. Prior to this, there were exercises where numerous Chinese warplanes flew past the median line of the Taiwan Strait and ventured into key areas of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
Over a span of 72 hours last week, 73 PLA aircraft either crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line or entered the southeastern or southwestern parts of Taiwan's ADIZ. Concurrently, nine PLA vessels were also reported in Taiwan's waters over three consecutive days.
This recent activity of 16 Chinese ships surrounding Taiwan on Friday into Saturday marked the highest number since the island's Defense Ministry began providing daily updates on PLA activity in August 2022.
Experts, such as Carl Schuster, a former director of operations at the US Pacific Command's Joint Intelligence Center, consider these military maneuvers as part of Beijing's twofold strategy. First, it presents Taiwan's defenders with various potential attack routes to strategize their defenses. Second, it serves as practice, training, and rehearsal for a possible Chinese invasion of Taiwan.
China's ruling Communist Party claims Taiwan as its territory despite never having controlled it and has long sought to diplomatically isolate the self-governing democracy. Beijing has not ruled out using force to take control of the island. Chinese state media emphasized the naval activity, indicating the PLAN's record-breaking deployment of vessels in the region, while analysts suggest that the recent intensive exercises demonstrate the PLA's capabilities in encircling Taiwan.
Although details on specific PLA warships in the area were not disclosed by Taiwan's Defense Ministry or Chinese state-run media, it is believed that the exercises likely included amphibious landing training, indicating a potential preparation for maritime real-combat situations.
Analysts anticipate that China will continue to escalate pressure on Taiwan with more exercises in the future, expecting them to be more complex and involve a larger extent of units.
Follow Daryo's official Instagram and Threads pages to keep up to date on world news.
Comments (0)