HONG KONG — The Chinese military conducted large-scale drills around Taiwan on Tuesday in what it said was a “stern warning” to pro-independence forces on the Beijing-claimed island, as it called Taiwan’s president a “parasite.”
The Taiwanese government condemned the exercises, in which Chinese army, navy, air and rocket forces closed in on waters to the north, south and east of Taiwan, according to China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). No live fire has been reported.
Tensions have been heightened since last month, when Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te described China as a “foreign hostile force” and proposed 17 measures to counter threats from Beijing, which has not ruled out the use of force to achieve its unification goal.
Beijing has rebuffed offers of talks from Lai, who says only the island democracy’s 23 million people can decide their future.
The Chinese drills were accompanied by the release of multiple propaganda images and videos. One cartoon video titled “Shell” depicts Lai, whom Beijing calls a “separatist” and “troublemaker,” as a “parasite” held by a pair of chopsticks over a Taiwan on fire.
“Parasite poisoning Taiwan Island. Parasite hollowing island out. Parasite courting ultimate destruction,” text in the video reads.
A poster titled “Closing In” shows Chinese ships and aircraft surrounding Taiwan, while a video called “Subdue Demons and Vanquish Evils” features the monkey king from the Chinese epic “Journey to the West.”
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office called the military drills a “resolute punishment for the reckless provocations” of the Lai administration.
“Pursuing ‘Taiwan independence’ means pushing the people of Taiwan into a dangerous situation of war,” spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. “We will not allow any person or force to separate Taiwan from China.”
A spokesperson for the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command called the exercises a “legitimate and necessary” action to safeguard China’s sovereignty.
“These drills mainly focus on sea-air combat-readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, assault on maritime and ground targets, and blockade on key areas and sea lanes,” the spokesperson, Shi Yi, said in a statement Tuesday.
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said that as of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday local time (3:30 a.m. Tuesday ET), it had detected 71 Chinese military aircraft, 13 warships and four coast guard vessels around the island. Thirty-six of the aircraft crossed the median line that until recent years had served as an unofficial buffer in the Taiwan Strait.
“We strongly condemn the PRC’s irrational provocations,” the ministry said in an earlier statement Tuesday, referring to China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China. “We firmly oppose PLA’s actions that undermine regional peace.”
Taiwan has activated aircraft, navy ships and land-based missile systems in response to the Chinese drills, the ministry said, adding that it has been tracking China’s first domestically built Shandong aircraft carrier since Saturday.
The United States, which has no official relations with Taiwan but is the island’s most important international backer, said later Tuesday that China’s military activities and rhetoric “only serve to exacerbate tensions and put the region’s security and the world’s prosperity at risk.”
“In the face of China’s intimidation tactics and destabilizing behavior, the United States’ enduring commitment to our allies and partners, including Taiwan, continues,” the State Department said in a statement.
The drills on Tuesday were higher-profile than the three China has held around Taiwan since President Donald Trump was elected in November. They also did not carry the same “Joint Sword” code name as exercises of similar scale last October and May, which Zhang Chi, a professor at the PLA’s National Defense University in Beijing, told state-run broadcaster CCTV indicates that these exercises have become a “new normal” for the Chinese military.
Beijing “very obviously” deployed more troops than in earlier joint air and maritime combat-readiness patrols, said Ying-Yu Lin, assistant professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies at Tamkang University in New Taipei City.
The exercises were intended to “test the U.S. bottom line” on Taiwan before a potential meeting between Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Lin told NBC News in a phone interview Tuesday.
The drills took place two days after Pete Hegseth concluded his first trip to Asia as defense secretary. During his visit to U.S. allies the Philippines and Japan, Hegseth criticized China’s growing aggression in the region and called Japan an “indispensable partner” in deterring it.
Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Tuesday that Beijing was an “obvious troublemaker” disrupting peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and that the “parasite” rhetoric fully demonstrated Beijing’s provocation.
He told reporters the Chinese military should focus on tackling internal corruption rather than holding drills in the region. Last year, Beijing fired two former defense ministers amid an anti-corruption campaign in its military.
Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council condemned the Chinese drills, urging Beijing to “immediately cease irrational provocative actions.”
China’s “militaristic provocations not only escalate tensions in the Taiwan Strait but also severely undermine regional peace and stability and threaten global security,” it said in a statement Tuesday.
Though Taiwanese authorities view Beijing as a serious threat, most people on the island believe China is “unlikely or very unlikely” to invade in the next five years, according to a poll released last year by Taiwan’s top military think tank.
