Stephen McDonell
Chinese correspondent
EPA-EFE / REX / Shutterstock
Taiwan Patrol Keellung Harbor navy ships while China organizes military exercises in the Taiwan Strait
The Chinese army carried out a live shooting exercise in the Taiwan Strait to simulate strikes on key ports and energy facilities, he said on Wednesday.
The exercise, called “Strait Thunder”, is an escalation of military exercises that China held on Tuesday around Taiwan, the Beijing democratic island affirms as a territory.
The Taiwan presidential office said on Tuesday that it “strongly condemns” the “military provocations”, which have become increasingly routine in links between embittered features.
The exercises come as China has sharpened its rhetoric against the president of Taiwan, Lai Ching-te, calling it “parasite” and “separatist”. Lai had referred as soon as possible this month as China as a “foreign hostile force”.
The exercises were supposed to be a “serious warning and a powerful confinement of the separatist forces of” the independence of Taiwan “, declared a declaration of the People’s Army of Chinese Liberation (PLA).
He also published a series of caricatures representing Lai as a “parasitic” which “poisoned the island of Taiwan” and – as well as an image of Lai being grilled on a fire – “to court the ultimate destruction”.
Another video of the APL, entitled “Subdue Demons and Vanquish Eys”, compared the army’s capacities to the magical powers of the king of monkey, a mythical Chinese character.
In recent days, the Journal of the Chinese Communist Party has published a series of bidders daily denouncing Lai as a “troublemaker” and “warm”.
“The facts have fully proven that Lai Ching-Te is a vicious war manufacturer,” read one of the articles published on Wednesday. “Subdition of demons and defeat the evils, use strength to stop the war.”
Although the trigger for this week’s exercises has not been stated, the Chinese authorities and the state media refer to a multitude of policies announced by Lai last month to counter Beijing infiltration and infiltration operations – where Lai used the term “hostile force”.
However, the exercise calendar, to come after the announcement of Lai, suggests that the Chinese authorities wanted to wait for the conclusion of meetings between Chinese President Xi Jinping and international business leaders, as well as the annual Boao affairs summit which ended on March 28.
They also come with the attention of the world shot elsewhere, while the world markets are accelerating for the last cycle of prices of the Trump administration.
A propaganda video has shown Chinese military prowess juxtaposed to animated scenes from the King of Monkey – a mythical warrior
In response to the last military exercises in China, the White House said on Tuesday that US President Donald Trump “stressed the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait.” On Wednesday, the US State Department reaffirmed its “sustainable commitment” to Taiwan.
During his recent visit to Asia, the American defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, also repeatedly criticized the assault of China in the region and is committed to providing “a robust, ready and credible deterrence”, including in the Taiwan Strait.
However, the APL seems to evolve towards a situation where such exercises around Taiwan occur regularly rather than in response to a specific perceived provocation.
Some experts consider exercises as a general rehearsal for a possible real blockage to try to overthrow the government in Taipei in the future.
In the words of the Chinese army this week, they serve as a practice “near Taiwan in all directions”.
In addition, analysts believe that Beijing has increased the frequency and size of its military exercises as a means of trying to increase the pressure on the population of Taiwan to finally accept an annexation of China as inevitable.
This despite the fact that opinion polls have regularly shown that the vast majority of Taiwanese are firmly opposed to a takeover of their democratically ruled group ruled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Taiwanese officials warned that China could organize more military exercises later this year, on dates like the birthday of Lai who took office or the national day of Taiwan in October.
However, in Taiwan, APL movements can also offer an opportunity.
Whenever China leads such war games, Taiwan’s military leaders said they could study maneuvers in order to better prepare their own forces for any real attack.
