Solider miniatures are seen in front of displayed Chinese and Taiwanese flags in this illustration taken, April 11, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
REUTERS | Published February 26, 2025
TAIPEI/BEIJING, Feb 26 (Reuters) – China’s military held “shooting training” on Wednesday off Taiwan’s southwest coast in a move Taipei described as provocative and dangerous, while a senior Chinese leader vowed unswerving efforts to bring the island under Beijing’s control.
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Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has repeatedly complained of Chinese military activities, including several rounds of full-scale war games during the past three years.
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Shortly before 9 a.m. (0100GMT), Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement, it had detected 32 Chinese military aircraft carrying out a “joint combat readiness drill” with Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait area.
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“During this period it even blatantly violated international practice by setting up a drills area in waters about 40 nautical miles (74 km) off the coast … without prior warning, claiming that it would carry out ‘shooting training’,” the ministry added.
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Taiwan’s major southwestern population centres of Kaohsiung and Pingtung are both home to important naval and air bases. Kaohsiung is also home to Taiwan’s largest port, a busy hub for global shipping.
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The exercises endanger the safety of international flights and shipping and are a “blatant provocation” to regional peace and stability, the ministry said, adding that it had dispatched its own forces to keep watch.
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There was no immediate confirmation from China that it was carrying out new drills around Taiwan and its defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
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China’s other recent military activity in the region, such as that off Australia’s coast, are “proof that China is the only, and the greatest, threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific,” Taiwan’s ministry said.
Solider miniatures are seen in front of displayed Chinese and Taiwanese flags in this illustration taken, April 11, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/ File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab
Summary
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Taiwan says China holds ‘shooting’ drills off its southwest
China has not announced any military exercises
Senior Chinese leader vows ‘reunification’ push with Taiwan
TAIPEI/BEIJING, Feb 26 (Reuters) – China’s military held “shooting training” on Wednesday off Taiwan’s southwest coast in a move Taipei described as provocative and dangerous, while a senior Chinese leader vowed unswerving efforts to bring the island under Beijing’s control.
Democratically governed Taiwan, which China views as its own territory, has repeatedly complained of Chinese military activities, including several rounds of full-scale war games during the past three years.
Shortly before 9 a.m. (0100GMT), Taiwan’s defence ministry said in a statement, it had detected 32 Chinese military aircraft carrying out a “joint combat readiness drill” with Chinese warships in the Taiwan Strait area.
“During this period it even blatantly violated international practice by setting up a drills area in waters about 40 nautical miles (74 km) off the coast … without prior warning, claiming that it would carry out ‘shooting training’,” the ministry added.
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Taiwan’s major southwestern population centres of Kaohsiung and Pingtung are both home to important naval and air bases. Kaohsiung is also home to Taiwan’s largest port, a busy hub for global shipping.
The exercises endanger the safety of international flights and shipping and are a “blatant provocation” to regional peace and stability, the ministry said, adding that it had dispatched its own forces to keep watch.
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There was no immediate confirmation from China that it was carrying out new drills around Taiwan and its defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
China’s other recent military activity in the region, such as that off Australia’s coast, are “proof that China is the only, and the greatest, threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific,” Taiwan’s ministry said.
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China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its rule, and has denounced both President Lai Ching-te, who took office last year, as a “separatist”, and the United States for its support for Taiwan.
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Earlier on Wednesday, China’s official Xinhua news agency said the ruling Communist Party’s fourth ranked leader, Wang Huning, had called this week for greater effort in the cause of Chinese “reunification”.
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China must “firmly grasp the right to dominate and take the initiative in cross-strait relations, and unswervingly push forward the cause of reunification of the motherland”, it quoted Wang as telling an annual meeting on work related to Taiwan.
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Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future.
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SEVERED UNDERSEA CABLES
Taiwan and China have traded barbs also traded barbs this week over the severing of an undersea communications cable off the island’s southwest coast.
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Taiwan on Tuesday detained a Chinese-linked cargo ship, flagged in Togo, suspected of involvement, though China’s government said Taiwan was “manipulating” possible Chinese involvement, saying the island was casting aspersions before the facts were clear.
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Before being detained by Taiwan’s coast guard, the Chinese-crewed Hong Tai 58 was already on a monitoring list of 52 China-linked vessels that Taiwan security agencies suspect pose a threat to cables because of their past activities near Taiwan, two Taiwan officials familiar with the matter told Reuters.
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This is the fifth case of sea cable malfunctions this year for Taiwan. It reported three such cases in 2024 and 2023.
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Taiwan has pointed to similarities between what it has experienced and damage to undersea cables in the Baltic Sea after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
RELATED: Taiwan dispatches forces in response to China ‘live-fire’ drills off island
THE DAILY TRIBUNE | Published February 26, 2025
Taiwan dispatched forces on Wednesday in response to China’s “live-fire” drills off the self-ruled island, Taipei’s defense ministry said, condemning the exercises as dangerous.
China deployed 32 aircraft around Taiwan as part of a joint combat drill and announced “live-fire exercises” in an area about 40 nautical miles (74 kilometers) off the island’s south, the ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan’s military responded by sending sea, air and land forces to “monitor, alert and respond appropriately,” the statement said.
China’s People’s Liberation Army “has blatantly violated international norms by unilaterally designating a drill zone 40 NM off the coast of Kaohsiung and Pingtung, claiming to conduct live-fire exercises without prior warning,” the ministry said.
“This move not only caused a high degree of danger to the safety of international flights and vessels at sea, but is also a blatant provocation to regional security and stability.”
China has ramped up the deployment of fighter jets and warships around Taiwan in recent years to press its claim of sovereignty over the island — which Taipei rejects.
The defence ministry said the live-fire exercises come after China held similar drills off Vietnam and Australia, and “prove that China is the only and biggest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region.”
The drills also come after Taiwan on Tuesday seized a Chinese-crewed cargo ship suspected of severing a subsea telecoms cable serving Taiwan’s Penghu island group.
There is growing concern in Taiwan over the security of its cables after a Chinese-owned cargo ship was suspected of cutting one northeast of the island this year.
China has threatened to use force to bring Taiwan under its control. And Taiwan fears China could sever its communication links as part of an attempt to seize the island or blockade it.
Taiwan is a potential flashpoint for a war between China and the United States, which is the island’s most important backer and biggest arms supplier.
While the United States is legally bound to provide arms to Taiwan, Washington has long maintained “strategic ambiguity” when it comes to whether it would deploy its military to defend the island from a Chinese attack.
Despite strong bipartisan support in the US Congress for Taiwan, there are fears that President Donald Trump might not consider the island worth defending if China attacked.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te has already vowed to boost investment in the United States to reduce the trade imbalance and spend more on the island’s military, while his government is also considering increasing US natural gas imports.
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