China on Monday flexed its military muscles in the South China Sea after it launched a mega drill, which saw the self-governing island of Taiwan being blockaded from all directions. Not just the three wings of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), even China’s rocket force has been sent to encircle Taiwan.
As the second day saw the PLA firing rockets, some falling inside Taiwan’s territorial waters, the drill titled "Justice Mission-2025" is unlike others, according to Chinese media.
Chinese military experts say the changes in the areas of joint exercises surrounding Taiwan show that the chain of encirclement is tightening. The drill covers the Taiwan Strait, northern Taiwan, southwestern Taiwan, southeastern Taiwan, and the east of Taiwan.
The Chinese media is also listing reasons why this drill is different:
1) Closing the door to beat the dog: Professor Meng Xiangqing of the National Defense University said the exercise saw Chinese ships and aircraft getting closer and closer to Taiwan, tightening the chain. The drill was focused on achieving "all-round, no dead ends" and "closing the door to beat the dog" (a Chinese idiom that means to hide undesirable actions like crackdowns or abuse from outside view). The Chinese actions are also stressed at preventing escape, highlighting prevention of external interference, ensuring that "Taiwan independence" elements cannot escape and that external aid cannot come in, he added.
2) Short preparation time: Preparing for a large-scale exercise normally takes time. However, this exercise was conducted in a very short period of time, as it has been less than two weeks since the US announced the largest arms sale to Taiwan in history on December 17th (US local time). This also hints that China can organise such a large-scale drill in such a short time, thanks to years of training and drills. It is giving the message that the Chinese military is truly capable of acting decisively and swiftly, eliminating the "Taiwan independence" activists at a single command, giving the enemy no chance to regroup, the media claims.
3) Geographical proximity to Taiwan: The exercise was extremely close to Taiwan with the closest point to the southern exercise area is only 8.8 kilometers from Taiwan. The easternmost point is only 18 kilometers. This distance is negligible for military equipment, and the Chinese can practically walk right into Taiwan. Faced with such an exercise, there is nothing much the Taiwanese can do.
4) Warning to the US: Though the Chinese termed the past exercises as aimed at deterring "Taiwan independence" forces, it never explicitly mentioned external interference forces. However, this time is different. This time, the Eastern Theater Command directly announced that some of the exercise subjects were aimed at external interference forces.
The Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) announced that on December 29, it organised a bomber formation to conduct a long-range combat readiness patrol east of Taiwan. This is focused on combating external interference forces, particularly deterring the enemy from entering the region beyond the first island chain, and conducting long-range strikes and close-in strikes against targets outside the first island chain. This long-range strike is highly likely aimed at enemy aircraft carriers.