The Chinese regime said the military drills encircling Taiwan were a response to a recent U.S. arms sale to the island.
TAIPEI, Taiwan—China’s military fired 27 rockets into waters north and south of Taiwan from its coastal Fujian Province on Dec. 30, marking the second day of a new round of military drills intended to erode Taiwanese people’s confidence in their military’s ability to defend the island, according to Taiwan’s defense ministry.
Ten of the rockets landed within southern Taiwan’s 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone, marking the closest proximity to the island ever recorded for China’s live-fire drills, the defense ministry said at a Tuesday afternoon press conference on the communist regime’s military exercises, which Beijing has dubbed “Justice Mission 2025.”
The remaining 17 rockets landed outside of northern Taiwan’s contiguous zone, the ministry added, and none of the 27 flew over Taiwan.
Taiwan’s military detected 130 sorties by Chinese military aircraft, along with 14 navy vessels and eight official ships operating near the island, between 6 a.m. local time on Monday and 6 a.m. local time on Tuesday. Of those sorties, 90 crossed the Taiwan Strait median line and entered the northern, central, southwestern, and eastern parts of the island’s air defense identification zone.
Over the following nine hours, from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Taiwan’s military detected 71 sorties by Chinese military aircraft, along with 13 military vessels, 15 coast guard ships, and an amphibious assault formation consisting of four ships. According to the defense ministry, none of these vessels breached Taiwan’s territorial sea, or 12 nautical miles from the shore.
Military officials at the press conference emphasized that the Chinese regime was waging cognitive warfare alongside the drills.
“Chinese state media claimed to have blockaded four ports in Taiwan—this is outright disinformation,” Hsieh Ching-chin, deputy director-general of Taiwan’s Coast Guard Administration, said in Mandarin, according to a translation.
Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng, deputy chief of the general staff for intelligence at Taiwan’s defense ministry, dismissed Beijing’s claims about having successfully imposed a blockade on Taiwan through the drills.
“The blockade, in reality, never actually took place,” Hsieh said in Mandarin, according to a translation. “The reason [Beijing] is saying this is to make people believe that [its military drills] have achieved their intended purpose.”
Monday and Tuesday’s drills marked the largest by area and the closest yet to Taiwan, according to Taiwanese media outlets.
Given the different zones marked by China’s military for the drills, Hsieh said Beijing wanted to “send the message” that the Taiwan Strait is part of its territorial waters rather than being an international waterway.
Canada, the United States, and the UK have sailed warships through the Taiwan Strait this year in an effort to ensure the narrow waterway remains free.
By Frank Fang
