PLA extends ‘Taiwan encirclement’ exercises with anti-submarine warfare

[superadmin]

PLA extends ‘Taiwan encirclement’ exercises with anti-submarine warfare, showcases unrivaled area denial capability; ‘drills will not stop until reunification’

The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Monday continued military exercises and training activities surrounding the island of Taiwan, marking an extension from the previously announced schedule. Drills like these will not stop and are expected to become routine until reunification, as the Chinese mainland shows its determination to push forward the reunification process after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's provocative visit to the island last week that seriously violated China's sovereignty and territorial integrity, experts said.

The drills not only lock the island from inside out, but also from the outside in, telling external forces that the PLA has powerful area denial capabilities in the region that even the US cannot rival, analysts said. 

The PLA Eastern Theater Command continued realistic combat-oriented joint exercises in sea and air space around the island of Taiwan on Monday, focusing on joint anti-submarine warfare and sea assault operations, the PLA Eastern Theater Command said in a statement.

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Huge PLA drills around Taiwan really a message to US and allies, Chinese analysts say 

• Beijing’s fiery reactions aim to prevent US from driving Taiwan policy to brink of ‘a Ukraine war’, says Fudan University international studies dean
  
• PLA’s island blockade game likely to leave the US and allies at their wit’s end, Macau-based observer forecasts
  

Beijing is using war games and military and diplomatic responses to warn the United States and its allies against closer ties with Taiwan, but has managed to do so without triggering a full-blown conflict, Chinese observers noted.


“US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit [last week] pushed China to kick off a string of counter-attacks and measures against the US and Taiwan, which are all comprehensive and deliberate moves to prevent the US from driving their Taiwan policy to the brink of ‘a Ukraine war’,” Wu Xinbo, dean of the Institute of International Studies at Shanghai’s Fudan University, said.

The day after Pelosi’s departure, the People’s Liberation Army ramped up air and naval drills targeting Taiwan, before launching three days of full-scale, live-fire war games encircling the island that only wound down on Sunday.

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