2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan
2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan
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|
Areas where People's Liberation Army exercises were scheduled to take place between 4?7 August
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Date
| 4?15 August 2022
(
2022-08-04
?
2022-08-15
)
[1]
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Location
| |
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Caused by
| Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit
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Resulted in
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The
2022 Chinese military exercises around Taiwan
(
traditional Chinese
:
2022年環臺軍事演練
;
simplified Chinese
:
2022年?台?事演?
) were a series of
military exercises
by the
People's Republic of China
(PRC) that encircled
Taiwan
, officially the Republic of China (ROC). They initially lasted from 4?7 August 2022 and involved
live-fire drills
,
air sorties
, naval deployments, and
ballistic missile
launches by the
People's Liberation Army
(PLA). The exercises started in response to US Speaker of the House
Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan
.
[3]
[4]
[5]
The exercises, which drew criticism from the G7 nations, were a
show of force
intended to deter what the PRC perceives as US involvement in “internal Chinese affairs” and to demonstrate Chinese military power in the region for both international and domestic audiences.
[6]
[5]
[7]
The live-fire drills were unprecedented in recent history
[8]
and took place in six zones that surrounded the island's busiest
international waterways
and aviation routes.
[9]
[10]
On 8 August, China's military announced new military exercises around Taiwan.
[11]
China announced an end to the exercises on 10 August, but also stated that regular "patrols" would be launched in the
Taiwan Strait
.
[12]
[13]
Background
[
edit
]
Incursions into Taiwan ADIZ
[
edit
]
Since 2020, Taiwan's
Ministry of National Defense
has published routine reports on incursions of its
Air Defense Identification Zone
by Chinese forces, which are considered by analysts as part of a
salami-slicing
/swarming strategy and show of force in the region.
[14]
[15]
[16]
PLA aircraft entered on nearly 250 days in the 12 months between September 2020 and 2021, and the PRC's 2021
National Day
celebrations saw a record number of 148 aircraft inside Taiwan's ADIZ over the course of four days.
[17]
[18]
Most of these incursions, some of which included nuclear-capable
bombers
, took place in the southwestern part of the ADIZ following major events related to Taiwan's international space.
[17]
[19]
In a biennial report released in November 2021, the ROC Ministry of Defense warned that the PRC had obtained the capacity to surround and blockade the island's harbours, airports, and outbound flight routes.
[20]
Escalation of tensions
[
edit
]
On 9 January 2021, the US State Department under
Mike Pompeo
announced that it was
Lifting Self-Imposed Restrictions on the U.S.-Taiwan Relationship
, drawing protest from the PRC.
On 10 June 2022, PRC Defense Minister
Wei Fenghe
warned that "if anyone dares to split Taiwan from China, the Chinese army will definitely not hesitate to start a war", adding that it "would have no choice but to fight ... and crush any attempt of
Taiwan independence
" to safeguard "national sovereignty and territorial integrity." U.S. Secretary of Defense
Lloyd Austin
responded by condemning China's "provocative, destabilising" military activity near
Taiwan
.
[21]
[22]
The week before Nancy Pelosi's visit,
Xi Jinping
warned
Joe Biden
in a phone call that Washington should abide by the
One China principle
and that "those who play with fire will perish by it".
[23]
Biden told reporters that U.S. military officials believed Pelosi's visit was "not a good idea right now".
[24]
Military exercises
[
edit
]
On 2 August, in response to Pelosi's visit, the People's Republic of China announced four days of military live-fire drills,
[8]
in six zones that encircle the island on the busiest international waterways and aviation routes.
[25]
In response to the announcement, ROC officials complained that the PLA's live-fire drills were an invasion of Taiwan's territorial space and a direct challenge to free air and sea navigation.
[26]
On 4 August, Taiwanese troops fired flares to drive away drones that flew above the
Kinmen Islands
.
[27]
In a show of strength, the PRC deployed both a carrier group, as well as at least one nuclear submarine to the Taiwan Strait, with both the carrier group as well as the nuclear submarine participating in the live-fire drills.
[28]
The PRC announced additional live-fire drills in both the Yellow and Bohai sea, and China's Maritime Safety Administration announced five restricted areas in the Yellow Sea where exercises were to happen from 5 August to 15 August, as well as four additional zones in the Bohai Sea where a month of PRC military operations were to happen starting from 8 August.
[29]
China fired 11 missiles into waters surrounding Taiwan during the live fire drills, at least several of which were
Dongfeng ballistic missiles
, double the number fired in July 1995, during the
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
.
[30]
Several missiles reportedly flew over Taiwan.
[31]
[27]
Japan reported that five of the missiles landed in
its exclusive economic zone
, southwest of the
Yaeyama Islands
. According to the Japanese
Ministry of Defense
, this is the first time ballistic missiles launched by China had landed in Japan's exclusive economic zone.
[32]
While the PLA live-fire exercises were ongoing on 4 August, the US carrier strike group of the
USS
Ronald Reagan
was conducting military operations in the Philippine Sea, including waters to the southeast of Taiwan.
[33]
However, the US also cancelled the planned test launch of a
Minuteman III missile
, which was scheduled to happen during the same week the crisis started, in order to avoid escalating tensions with China further.
[34]
In response to the PRC drills, on 7 August, the ROC government announced that it would be conducting live-fire artillery exercises in
Pingtung County
which served to act as both retaliation to the recent PRC live-fire exercises around Taiwan and test combat readiness.
[35]
At first, the PRC seemed to wrap up its military drills according to its schedule published on 4 August.
[36]
During drills held in
Lienchiang County
flares fired by Taiwan's army started a fire.
[37]
On Monday,
China's Eastern Theater Command
announced it would continue its drills, which includes
anti-submarine attacks
and sea raid operations, without announcing an ending date.
[11]
On 10 August, Eastern Theatre Command announced an end to the military exercises after it had "successfully completed various tasks and effectively tested the integrated combat capabilities of the troops". However, Eastern Theatre Command also announced it would carry out regular "patrols in the direction of the Taiwan Strait."
[12]
[13]
Reactions
[
edit
]
| This section
needs expansion
. You can help by
adding to it
.
(
August 2022
)
|
Japan
[
edit
]
Japanese defense minister
Nobuo Kishi
condemned the Chinese military's action, saying that some missiles fired by China landed in
Japan's EEZ
and calling the incident "a grave issue that concerns our country’s national security and the safety of the people".
[38]
[39]
Japanese foreign minister
Yoshimasa Hayashi
called for the military exercises to stop, stating that they had a "serious impact on the peace and stability of the region and the international community".
[40]
Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson
Hua Chunying
said during a press conference that the relevant waters between China (including Taiwan) and Japan have not been demarcated yet.
[41]
North Korea
[
edit
]
State news agency
KCNA
reported that a
DPRK foreign ministry
spokesman supported the PRC's "righteous stand" and that North Koreans "denounce any external force's intervention in Taiwan".
[42]
Russia
[
edit
]
Russian spokesman
Dmitry Peskov
declared that China has the
sovereign right
to launch military drills around Taiwan and that Nancy Pelosi's visit provoked the tensions.
[43]
United States
[
edit
]
Wikisource
has original text related to this article:
On 5 August 2022, US Secretary of State
Antony Blinken
visited the Philippines and said that the US would seek to de-escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait in order to keep the region safe and the international waterway open.
[44]
He said:
These provocative actions are a significant escalation. We’ve seen how Beijing has attempted to change the
status quo on Taiwan
for some time ? for example, more than doubling the number of aircraft flown over the centerline that separates China and Taiwan over the past two years; pursuing economic coercion, political interference, cyber-attacks against Taiwan. Now they’ve taken dangerous acts to a new level.
...
The fact is
the Speaker's visit
was peaceful. There is no justification for this extreme, disproportionate, and escalatory military response. Let me say again that nothing has changed about our “
one China
” policy, which is guided by the
Taiwan Relations Act
, the
three Communiques
, and the
Six Assurances
. We don’t want unilateral changes to the status quo from either side. We do not support Taiwan independence. We expect cross-strait differences to be resolved peacefully, not coercively or by force.
[45]
[46]
Together with Australia and Japan, the US signed a joint statement on 6 August that condemned the firing of missiles into Japanese exclusive economic zones and accused China of "raising tension and destabilizing the region."
[47]
Following the Pelosi visit, the ChinaPower Project at the
Center for Strategic and International Studies
polled 64 leading U.S. experts on the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, and cross-Strait relations, including 28 former high-level U.S. government (USG) officials from both Democrat and Republican administrations, as well as 23 former USG policy and intelligence analysts and 13 top experts from academia and think tanks.
[48]
Responses were collected from 10 August ? 8 September 2022. The CSIS summarized the responses of the experts as follows:
- China is determined to unify with Taiwan, but Beijing does not have a coherent strategy.
- China is willing to wait to unify with Taiwan, and the August 2022 exercises are not an indicator of accelerated PRC timelines.
- Xi Jinping feels there are still avenues to peaceful unification.
- The potential for a military crisis or conflict in the Taiwan Strait is very real.
- China would immediately invade if Taiwan declared independence.
- China assumes that the United States would intervene in a Taiwan conflict.
Aftermath
[
edit
]
Analyst Rebecca Wilkins argued China escalated its posture after Pelosi's visit, which expanded its military presence in the area, using the visit as justification to establish a new status quo in the
Taiwan Strait
.
[49]
A
second incident
would occur in 2023 following a meeting with US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
[50]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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