China launches war games around Taiwan, drawing ire from Taipei, Washington

China deployed fighter jets and warships to encircle Taiwan on Monday, in drills Beijing said were aimed at sending a “stern warning” to “separatist” forces on the self-ruled island.

Beijing has not ruled out using force to bring Taiwan under its control and Monday’s drills represent its fourth round of large-scale war games in the past two years.

The United States said China’s actions were “unwarranted” and risk “escalation” as it called on Beijing to act with restraint.

Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who took office in May, has been more outspoken than his predecessor Tsai Ing-wen in defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, angering Beijing, which calls him a “separatist”.

Lai vowed on Monday to “protect democratic Taiwan, and safeguard national security”, while the defence ministry said it dispatched “appropriate forces” in response to the drills.

AFP journalists near the Hsinchu air force base, in the north of Taiwan, saw 12 fighter jets take off on Monday.

Outlying islands administered by Taipei were on “heightened alert” and “aircraft and ships will respond to enemy situations in accordance with the engagement rules”, Taiwan’s defence ministry said.

This screengrab taken from handout video footage released by China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command on Oct 14, 2024 shows a Chinese vessel sailing during the “Joint Sword-2024B” military drills conducted by China around Taiwan. — AFP

Beijing said its exercises served as a “stern warning to the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan Independence’ forces”.

The drills, dubbed Joint Sword-2024B, are testing troops’ “joint operations capabilities” according to Captain Li Xi, spokesman for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command.

They are taking place in “areas to the north, south and east of Taiwan Island”, he said.

The drills are “focusing on subjects of sea-air combat-readiness patrol, blockade on key ports and areas”, Li said. They also practised an “assault on maritime and ground targets”.

Fighter jets and warships had been deployed, Chinese state media said.

China’s coast guard was also dispatched to conduct “inspections” around the island.

A diagram released by the coast guard showed four fleets encircling Taiwan and moving in an anticlockwise direction around the island.

The coast guard of the eastern province of Fujian — the closest area on the mainland to the self-ruled island — also said it was conducting “comprehensive law enforcement patrols” in waters near the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands.

Taiwan said four “formations” of China coast guard ships were patrolling around the island, but they had not entered its prohibited or restricted waters.

China has ramped up military activity around Taiwan in recent years, sending in warplanes and other military aircraft while its ships maintain a near-constant presence around the island’s waters.

“In the face of enemy threats, all officers and soldiers of the country are in full readiness,” Taiwan’s defence ministry said Monday.

Lai convened a high-level security meeting over the drills, said Joseph Wu, secretary-general of the National Security Council, who described the exercises as “inconsistent with international law”.

In his speech Thursday celebrating the island’s National Day, Lai vowed to “resist annexation” of Taiwan and insisted Beijing and Taipei were “not subordinate to each other”.

Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party has long defended the sovereignty and democracy of Taiwan, which has its own government, military and currency.

Beijing on Monday said the drills were “a legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity”.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said Monday that 25 Chinese aircraft and seven navy vessels were detected around island in the 26 hours to 8am (12am GMT).

This photo taken and released by the Taiwan Coast Guard on Oct 14, 2024 shows a Taiwan Coast Guard personnel using binoculars on a petrol ship off Pengjia Islet (Keelung) while pointing at a Chinese Coast Guard ship sailing in the distance outside Taiwan’s territorial waters. — Taiwan Coast Guard via AFP

Lieutenant Colonel Fu Zhengnan, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, said in a video shared by state media that the drills could “switch from training to combat at any time.”

“If Taiwan separatists provoke once, the PLA’s operation around the island will make their first move,” Fu said, referring to China’s People’s Liberation Army.

Taiwan’s coast guard said Monday it had detained a Chinese man on one of its outlying islands after a possible “grey zone intrusion”, referring to tactics that fall short of a direct act of war.

During morning rush hour in Taipei, people appeared to be largely unperturbed by the latest drills.“I won’t panic too much because they quite often have drills,” 34-year-old engineer Benjamin Hsiao told AFP.

“It’s not the first time in recent years anyway, so I feel a bit numb.” The current dispute between China and Taiwan dates back to a civil war in which the nationalist forces of Chiang Kai-shek were defeated by Mao Zedong’s communist fighters and fled to Taiwan in 1949.

Since then, China and Taiwan have been ruled separately.In Washington, an official from the administration of US President Joe Biden said they were monitoring the drills and there was no justification for them after Lai's “routine” speech.

The official said they urged China “to avoid any further action that may jeopardize peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region”.

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity given the sensitivity of the situation, said they believed China was practicing blockading Taiwanese ports to the north and south of the island and international shipping lanes as well as repelling the arrival of foreign forces.

Taiwan on Sunday had reported a Chinese aircraft carrier group sailing to the island's south through the strategic Bashi Channel which separates Taiwan from the Philippines and connects the South China Sea to the Pacific.

Chinese state media has since Thursday run a series of stories and commentaries denouncing Lai's speech, and on Sunday the Eastern Theatre Command released a video saying it was “prepared for battle”.

The PLA's Liberation Army Daily newspaper wrote on Monday that “those who play with fire get burned!”.

“As long as the 'Taiwan independence' provocations continue, the PLA's actions to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity will not stop,” the paper said.

China held the “Joint Sword-2024A” drills for two days around Taiwan in May shortly after Lai took office, saying they were “punishment” for separatist content in his inauguration speech.

Lai has repeatedly offered talks with China but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future and rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims.