China's large-scale military drills around Taiwan could become regular, warn US experts

Washington, DC [US], May 26 : Following China's Joint Sword-2024A military exercise around Taiwan, US experts analysed that Beijing has an intent to make large-scale military drills around the island a regular move with the China Coast Guard (CCG) to play a more important role in a blockade, reported Focus Taiwan.

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a think tank in Washington, issued an article, where Bonny Lin, head of the CSIC's China Power Project, and fellow researcher Brian Hart analysed the two-day Joint Sword-2024A, which was launched on Thursday, three days after President Lai Ching-te was sworn in on Monday.

Joint Sword-2024A was the third round of large-scale military exercises China has staged around Taiwan in recent years.

The two American experts said the latest military drills, linked with law enforcement operations, showed several different aspects of China's approach to Taiwan, Focus Taiwan reported.

"First, China is likely to continue to employ large-scale military activities around Taiwan to signal its displeasure and punish Taiwan and the United States," the two experts said.

According to the two experts, some experts from Taiwan, the US and China had argued since the military exercise in April 2023 that China's military drills faced diminishing utility in terms of advancing Beijing's interests against Taiwan.

They added that the latest military exercise came after the statements made by Lai during his inauguration speech were unacceptable to China.

Newly-sworn President Lai, in his speech, cited the constitution of Taiwan as saying the Taiwan and the People's Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, Focus Taiwan reported.

"Joint Sword-2024A shows that when China needs to demonstrate significant displeasure, the PLA (People's Liberation Army) and CCG are readily available actors and are best suited to attract international attention," the two experts said.

They emphasised that such a trend is expected to continue.

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