China Stages Blockade of Taiwan

China mobilized its army, navy, air force, and rocket force, including one of its aircraft carriers, for a joint military exercise around the self-ruled island of Taiwan on Monday.

During the Joint Sword-2024B exercise, Chinese vessels and aircraft, which approached Taiwan in close proximity, engaged in drills focusing on combat patrol, blockades on key ports and areas, as well as assault on sea and land targets, testing joint operations capabilities.

The Chinese military exercise came after Taiwan’s leader said that it was impossible for China, a communist regime that was established in 1949, to become the Taiwanese motherland because the Republic of China, which ruled the island, was founded in 1911. Newsweek has contacted the Chinese Defense Ministry and Foreign Ministry for comment by email.

After a defeat in a civil war in 1949, which lost its control of mainland China, the Republic of China retreated to Taiwan. No formal peace treaty or agreement has been made to officially end the war, with both sides claiming to be the legitimate government of all of China.

“Therefore, in terms of age, it is absolutely impossible for the People’s Republic of China to become the ‘motherland’ of the Republic of China’s people,” said President Lai Ching-te on October 5, using China’s official name, ahead of Taiwan’s national day on October 10.

The large-scale Chinese drill was hosted by the Eastern Theater Command, one of the five theater commands of the Chinese military, which claimed Taiwan and the Taiwan Strait in its area of responsibility. The latter is a 110-mile waterway that separates China and Taiwan.

Senior Captain Li Xi, the Eastern Theater Command’s spokesperson, said that the drill served as a warning to the Taiwan Independence forces’ separatist acts. China has long viewed the island, which was supported by the United States, as a breakaway province.

Li said this was a “legitimate and necessary” operation for China to safeguard its national sovereignty and national unity. The Taiwanese military said it deployed forces to respond to the Chinese irrational and provocative actions and defend the island’s sovereignty.

Matthew Miller, spokesperson of the U.S. State Department, urged the Chinese to act with restraint, claiming response to Lai’s comment with military provocations risked escalation.

“The U.S. is seriously concerned by the People’s Liberation Army joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait and around Taiwan,” Miller said, using the Chinese military’s official name.

“We continue to monitor PRC activities and coordinate with allies and partners regarding our shared concerns. The U.S. remains committed to its long-standing ‘one China’ policy.”

PRC stands for the People’s Republic of China. The U.S. established diplomatic relations with China in 1979 while continuing to maintain an unofficial relationship with Taiwan, including arms sales to help the island maintain a self-defense capability against China.

In a statement to Newsweek, the presidential office of Taiwan denounced the Chinese military exercise, saying this undermined regional peace and stability and threatened Taiwan’s democracy and freedom. The island’s military was fully monitoring the situation, the statement added.

The Eastern Theater Command published a map showing it set up at least six “restricted areas” to the north, east, southeast, southwest, west, and northwest of the island of Taiwan.

The first Joint Sword exercise, or Joint Sword-2024A, was started on May 23 after Lai gave his inauguration speech. Five “restricted areas” were established around the island, warning ships and aircraft not to enter them.

CNS Liaoning, the first operational aircraft carrier of the Chinese navy, launched a fighter jet while underway in waters off Taiwan’s east coast, according to a video released by the Chinese military, which claimed the warship simulated strikes on sea and land targets.

The Liaoning, which is homeported at Qingdao in China’s eastern province of Shandong, was tracked operating in the Philippine Sea from September 17 to October 1. It later sailed in waters southeast of the Philippines and headed toward the South China Sea.

Satellite imagery showed the Liaoning was pier-side at Sanya naval base on the southern Chinese island of Hainan on October 8 with China’s second Chinese operational aircraft carrier, CNS Shandong. This was the first time they had been seen moored together.

The Taiwanese military announced on Sunday that it spotted the Liaoning transiting near the Bashi Channel with other warships and heading toward the Philippine Sea.

The waterway lies between Taiwan to the north and the Philippines to the south, forming the first island chain in the Western Pacific Ocean. It extends southward from Japan and is a U.S. defense concept that seeks to contain China’s navy in the region during a conflict.

“The drill is to test combat capabilities of integrated operations inside and outside the island chain by troops of multiple services,” the Chinese military said of the Liaoning. China has launched three aircraft carriers with the third one has yet to be commissioned.

Besides employing an aircraft carrier, the Chinese military staged the exercise with DF-15 land-based short-range ballistic missiles, according to footage published by state media.

The missile has a reported range of 372 to 559 miles. During a similar military drill held around Taiwan in August 2022, following a visit to Taipei by then-U. S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, China said it had fired 11 DF-15 missiles into waters near the island.

The Eastern Theater Command did not announce the end date of the Joint Sword-2024B.