China continued with its military drills around Taiwan Wednesday under 'Strait Thunder-2025A' exercise amid the US warning. The war games come in the wake of the recent remarks by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that America is committed to sustaining robust, ready and credible deterrence in the Indo-Pacific, including across the Taiwan Strait.
Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command (ETC) said its ground force held long-range live-fire drills in waters of the East China Sea, involving precision strikes on simulated targets of key ports and energy facilities.
Spokesperson for the Chinese PLA ETC Senior Colonel Shi Yi said the exercise mainly focused on training subjects such as identification and verification, warning and expulsion, and interception and detention, to test the capabilities of the troops in regional control, joint blockade, and precision strike.
A carrier strike group led by the CNS Shandong aircraft carrier conducted assault drills. According to Shi, the Shandong strike group cooperated with other naval and air units to carry out exercises of vessel-aircraft coordination, regional air dominance, and strikes against land and sea targets.
Taiwan's military said it was closely monitoring the war games but there was nothing unusual on the island.
76 PLA aircraft, 15 PLAN vessels and 4 official ships operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (UTC+8) today. 37 sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern, and eastern ADIZ. We have monitored the situation and responded. pic.twitter.com/SVKDXferVr
— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, ROC(Taiwan) 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) April 2, 2025
On Wednesday, Taiwan reported that 76 military aircraft, and 19 naval or government ships entered waters and airspace near the island over the past 24 hours, with 37 of the planes crossing the centre line in the 160-kilometre wide Taiwan Strait that forms an unofficial border.
Amanda Hsiao, a director in Eurasia Group’s China practice, has been quoted as saying that China is holding the exercise with the US in mind. "...they want to persuade the Trump administration that Lai (Taiwan’s president Lai Ching-te) is a troublemaker and to deter the US from maintaining high levels of support to Taiwan," The Guardian quoted Hsiao as saying.
