China's Drill Simulated Taking Over Taiwan Before US Military Could Rush To Island's Aid: Report

While both Taiwan and China claim the recent drills carried out by the People's Liberation Army (PLA) near Taiwan Strait amounted to a "rehearsal for reunification," reports have emerged that the drills were precisely focused on simulating a scenario where China takes over Taiwan before the U.S. military intervened.

China had banned ships and aircraft from entering its military exercise zone during the four-day drills, thereby effectively blockading the waters around Taiwan, reported Taiwan News, quoting Japanese media Nikkei Shimbun.

On the PLA exercise lasting four days, the report said China estimates it would take seven days for the U.S. troops to arrive in Taiwan after completing relevant domestic procedures. So, the PLA may have planned the current military exercise so as to play out a decisive battle that immediately defeats Taiwan before the U.S. could intervene, Nikkei Shumbun added.

Besides, the current military exercise is different from the one carried out by China during the cross-strait tensions in 1996. Then, the PLA only fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait in the immediate area surrounding the exercise. However, this time, the drill covered Taiwan's eastern and southeastern sea and airspace, which signals the PLA was practicing a blockade of Taiwan.

The pattern of firing missiles too reiterates the claim. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said the PLA fired 11 missiles of which five fell into the sea east of Taiwan. This hints that the aim of the drill was to stop the Seventh Fleet of the U.S. Navy from coming to help defend Taiwan. China also fired missiles into the sea southwest of Taiwan near the Bashi Channel, used by the PLA to circumvent Taiwan, en route to the West Pacific.

According to Meng Xiangqing, a professor at the National Defense University, the southern exercise zone's proximity to the Bashi Channel shows China could block the entire channel during an emergency and stop the U.S. aircraft carriers from sailing north from the South China Sea.

Meanwhile, China's state-run TV news station has claimed that the PLA will begin to hold "regular" military drills on the eastern side of Taiwan's median line. According to a report, China has never recognized the median line, calling it an "imaginary" line conceived by the U.S. military in the previous century to meet their combat needs.