Chinese military exercises near Taiwan: “Beijing wanted to demonstrate that it has high-precision weapons”

Beijing said on Monday that three days of military exercises were held around TaiwanTHE “Operation Sword” in which China dozens of planes were deployed to simulate attacks and the “air blockade” of the island was carried out “successfully”.

The operation was launched in response to last week’s meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. For the Chinese Army, the maneuvers should be read as “a serious warning against the collusion between separatist forces seeking ‘Taiwan independence’ and outside forces”.

For Peer de Jongformer French Colonel Vice President of Themiis Training Institute, Beijing had several goals, as well as sending a warning to Washington and Taipei.

“Beijing wants to prove it It has very high precision weapons and targets that have been set in the Taiwan Strait,” De Jong, a security and international relations specialist, explained in an interview with Radio France International (RFI).

Q: What is Beijing trying to demonstrate with these military maneuvers?

–The complete encirclement exercise is intended to demonstrate that China is capable of establishing a complete blockade around the island of Taiwan. That is why this exercise brings together a good dozen large ships of all types, planes, planes.

This area is extremely Americanwith the US 5th Fleet cruising the region and alliances with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

This area around Taiwan is a totally American-controlled outpost center.

Any Chinese intrusion in this area endangers the entire military, which is extremely significant, since the United States considers the Pacific its “mare nostrum” (“our sea”, in Latin). Once again, between the American eagle and the Chinese dragon, we are witnessing a sort of round of observations in an extremely complex picture to understand.

–What are simulated fire exercises against key targets?

It is an exercise that takes place on two levels. The first is the total isolation of Taiwan. The second is to show that anyone approaching Taiwan and trying to escape would automatically be destroyed by these precision strikes. This is what the Chinese will try to demonstrate with these simulated firings on key targets.

Taiwanese targets that could be hit by Chinese weapons could be infrastructure, command posts, troop concentrations, protection systems. Because Taiwan is an extremely well protected island, with a whole network of underground bunkers and tunnels, and the Chinese are probably trying to find out more.

The entire Taiwanese defensive structure could be hit in the first salvo. The notion of precision is very important. Here the missiles are launched a few tens of meters.

–After the island’s total encirclement exercise, the Chinese military began live-fire exercises on Monday. What are the potential targets and what risks do these maneuvers involve?

–When submarines and nuclear missiles are tested, it is usually with live fire. All armies in the world regularly conduct live fire and this takes place at sea.

But when a ship tests its missiles, it launches one or two — sea-to-land or sea-to-sea missiles, for example — which land in international waters, so there’s no telling. The problem is that they (the Chinese) will try to launch these missiles as close as possible to Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone. What you need to fear is a shooting accident.

With this exercise, the Chinese want to demonstrate that they have very high precision weapons and targets that they have set in the Taiwan Strait, which is right between China and Taiwan. Then they will try to demonstrate that they can fire hundreds of kilometers extremely accurately at these targets that “will have been proposed or demonstrated” beforehand.

–Destroyers, fast missile boats, fighter aircraft, tankers and jammers participated in the operation. Why are jammers so important in this tutorial?

–Jammers do two things. The first is to interfere with all means of communication. This is very important when you want to “dominate” your opponent. Secondly, the jammers block everything related to the missiles and their trajectory, i.e. the response. With this exercise, the Chinese will theoretically study Taiwan’s defense capability.

In the event of an outright war, Taiwan’s anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-surface battery system could strike back against Chinese ships hundreds of kilometers away. The goal of the exercise is to demonstrate that inhibitors would make this possible Taiwanese response nearly impossible.

Source: RFI