China Stages More Combat Drills Around Taiwan; Over 50 Warplanes, 4 Naval Vessels Involved

Chinese fighter jets fly in the sky near Taiwan in a still from a video released by Chinese state-run media CCTV on Aug. 7, 2022. CCTV via Reuters/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

Taiwan is strongly condemning China for engaging in its second round of military combat exercises near the democratically governed island in less than a month.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry stated that it detected 57 Chinese aircraft and four naval vessels around Taiwan at 6 a.m. local time on Jan. 8, with 28 of the warplanes entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) and crossing the Taiwan Strait median line.

Aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems were tasked to respond to the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) activities, the Taiwanese ministry stated. The PLA is the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) military wing.

Taiwan’s presidential office issued a statement saying Taiwan and China both have the responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. The office also stated that China was making “groundless accusations”—a response to remarks from the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command.

The statement from the Chinese command said that the goal of the military drills was to counter what it called “provocative actions” by Taiwan and external forces. It noted that forces held “joint combat readiness patrols and actual combat drills” in Taiwan’s sea and airspace, with a focus on “land strikes and sea assaults.”

A file image of USS Chung-Hoon as it sat ready to be placed in active service before its commissioning ceremony on Ford Island at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Sept. 18, 2004. Lucy Pemoni/Reuters

The PLA’s exercises around Taiwan come just days after the United States sent a warship—the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Chung-Hoon—to transit the Taiwan Strait on Jan. 5.

“Chung-Hoon’s transit through the Taiwan Strait demonstrates the United States’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement, noting that the move was part of its routine activity. “The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.”

In a statement, the CCP accused the United States of “frequently flexing muscles in the name of exercising freedom of navigation” and vowed to maintain its military readiness “to all threats and provocations.”

Taiwan has been a self-governing democracy since the Chinese civil war ended in 1949, but the CCP views Taiwan as its own territory. It regards Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be united with mainland China by any means necessary; CCP leadership hasn’t ruled out the use of force to achieve this goal.

The CCP regularly uses its military to intimidate Taiwan, as seen on Dec. 25, 2022, when it sent 71 planes and seven ships toward the island in its largest show of force since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) visited Taiwan in August 2022.

A total of 1,727 Chinese aircraft crossed into Taiwan’s ADIZ in 2022, surpassing the previous year’s 960, AFP reported, citing data released by Taiwan’s Defense Ministry.

A Navy Force helicopter under the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) takes part in military exercises in the waters around Taiwan, at an undisclosed location, on Aug. 8, 2022, in a handout picture released on Aug. 9, 2022. Eastern Theatre Command/Handout via Reuters

China–Taiwan War Not ‘Inevitable’

Jake Sullivan, the White House’s national security adviser, said tensions between the United States and Beijing can still be solved peaceably, albeit with great difficulty. He believes that the CCP can still be deterred from invading Taiwan.

“There is a risk of conflict with respect to Taiwan, but I believe that with responsible stewardship, we can ensure that this contingency never comes to pass,” he said during a Jan. 5 interview with NPR.

“It will require us following through on the commitments of the Taiwan Relations Act, which for 40 years now has said we will provide defensive articles to Taiwan. And it will require direct diplomacy with the [CCP].”

Sullivan said maintaining the peace requires “hard work” and close “coordination with allies” to ensure that catastrophic conflict never erupts in the Indo-Pacific.

CCP leader Xi Jinping personally made veiled threats to U.S. President Joe Biden about the issue during a July teleconference, in which he suggested that the United States would be damaged by any attempt to prevent a takeover of Taiwan by the regime in Beijing.

“Playing with fire will set you on fire,” Xi told Biden. “I hope the U.S. can see this clearly.”

Sullivan reframed the issue of Biden and Xi’s contentious discussions and said the duo’s meeting in November provided “greater stability” to the Biden–Xi relationship and underscored that the two nations could still work together on other issues, such as climate change.

The United States formally recognizes but does not endorse the CCP’s position. While the U.S. doesn’t have formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it’s bound by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide Taiwan with the arms necessary for self-defense and to prevent any unilateral changes to the status quo.

Andrew Thornebrooke and Reuters contributed to this report.