Intelligence Chief Says China Drills Part of New Pressure Tactic on Taiwan

TaiwanPlus News

Taiwan's intelligence chief says China could be changing how it publicizes routine military drills near the country, making them appear more threatening as a way to put pressure on Taiwan and wear down its defenses. It comes as Taiwan sees an unprecedented amount of Chinese military activity around the country.

Transcript

00:01In the past year, China has conducted not one, not two, not three, but four large-scale military drills around Taiwan.

00:12And that's prompting concern here in Taipei as security officials reveal just how quickly China's military is evolving.

00:19A new report from Taiwan's National Security Bureau shows that Beijing's so-called large-scale exercises

00:25could be smaller, regular drills that are hyped up to be a bigger threat.

00:30We will be careful, because the Department of the Department has also told us that

00:35many of these exercises have been taken together as a sort of counter-missive exercise.

00:42It's a sort of counter-missive exercise that can cause people's fear.

00:47Earlier in April, China launched large-scale drills known as Straight Thunder 2025A,

00:52which saw dozens of aircraft and warships around Taiwan.

00:56Beijing says the exercises focus on precision strikes and were in response to Taiwan President

01:01Lai Qingde announcing a plan to counter Chinese espionage.

01:05But Taiwan's Security Bureau says this is an excuse.

01:09This time of training is quite special.

01:12Because the President was in the 3-year-old conference conference

01:15in the 3-year-old conference conference,

01:16to make some adjustments to prevent the spread of the spread of China.

01:20But the time of training has been taken to the 1-year-old and 2-year-old.

01:23If it's a counter-missive exercise, the time will not be taken so long.

01:27So we can decide that, through this training,

01:29we can take some pressure from Taiwan to counter-missive exercise.

01:31But whatever the reason for the drills, Taiwan says it's seeing an unprecedented number of Chinese planes around the country.

01:38The total amount of Chinese incursions into the country's air defense identification zone

01:42has skyrocketed since they were first reported in 2019.

01:46Four months into this year, and China's military, known as the PLA,

01:50have already tripled the number of planes it's sent around Taiwan in the entirety of 2020.

01:55Essentially what we've seen is the PLA gradually expand its presence on a daily basis to surround Taiwan,

02:03and then integrate new capabilities, kind of more far-reaching training exercises at a smaller level and a larger level,

02:10but really to kind of get used to operating in an actual operational environment that is the Taiwan theater.

02:16Despite Taiwan not responding to Chinese aggression with its own drills, it remains on alert,

02:21practicing how to mobilize its forces quickly for any situation that might arise.

02:26Justin Wu and Hami Okan for Taiwan Plus.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended