China’s large drills near Taiwan raise Japan, U.S. alert level

China’s large-scale military exercises held earlier this month in areas encircling Taiwan in response to a high-profile U.S. visit to the democratic island have demonstrated Beijing’s ability to target Japanese and U.S. troops based in the region and raised their alert level.

The drills, which included China firing ballistic missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone, highlighted the need to avoid a major military conflict over Taiwan and boost defense for the Nansei Islands, a chain covering Japan’s Okinawa and stretching southwest from Kyushu toward the self-ruled island, military experts said.

The Chinese military activities, prompted by the Taiwan visit by U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also included repeated crossings by Chinese navy vessels and warplanes of the median line between the mainland and Taiwan, a boundary that has been respected by both sides for decades.

Song Zhongping, a military commentator who taught at what is now the People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force University of Engineering, said the drills were aimed at “frightening the Taiwan independence forces” as well as warning against external interference, including by U.S. and Japanese forces.

He said the drills’ biggest benefit for China was being able to test the effectiveness of military scenarios it had drawn up directed toward the island. Taiwan and mainland China have been separately governed since they split due to a civil war in 1949, and communist Beijing has since endeavored to bring the island back into its fold, by force if necessary.

Noting that Yonaguni Island in Okinawa Prefecture, located about 110 kilometers from Taiwan, could be covered in any potential “Taiwan lockdown” operations by China aimed at isolating the island, Song warned against any attempt by Japan and the United States to meddle in cross-strait tensions.

“The PLA will certainly counter any bids by Japan and the United States to create two Chinas,” he said.

James Schoff, a former senior adviser for East Asia policy at the U.S. Defense Department, said the latest Chinese drills showed “a significant improvement” from previous exercises as they involved missile launches and coordinated activities on land, water and in the air.

Schoff said he thinks the United States “still holds a technological and experience advantage” versus the Chinese military but “clearly overall, this situation highlights the need to try to avoid a major confrontation” over Taiwan.

As for the frequent crossings of the median line in the Taiwan Strait, he said China is using the visit of Pelosi, the third-highest-ranking U.S. official, as an excuse to set a new baseline of military pressure on Taiwan.

“I think China is potentially interested in trying to close down or take full control over the Taiwan Strait. Or they would like the U.S. to think that the Taiwan Strait is off limits to U.S. military in the future,” Schoff said.

The U.S. expert said the landing of five Chinese ballistic missiles in Japan’s EEZ was meant to “demonstrate and make tangible” the capability of China to strike Japanese targets, with the goal of discouraging Tokyo from allowing Washington to use bases located in its Asian ally for the defense of Taiwan.

The missile launches also showed Beijing’s ability to protect from the mainland its forces in any operation to encircle Taiwan.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES