Chinese military practiced Taiwan invasion manoeuvres in 2023, says US general
Chinese military drills in the straits of Taiwan in 2023 practiced manoeuvres key to an invasion of the island, although an actual attack was not imminent or inevitable, a senior US general in the region said on Thursday.
In the exercises, the People's Liberation Army simulated a maritime and air blockade of Taiwan, amphibious assaults and counter-intervention operations, Deputy Commander of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Lieutenant General Stephen Sklenka, said in a speech in Canberra.
Sklenka's comments come as Taiwan's military mobilised its forces on Thursday after China started two days of «punishment» drills around Taiwan in what it said was a response to «separatist acts».
The latest Chinese military drills come just three days after Lai Ching-te took office as Taiwan's new president, a man Beijing detests as a «separatist». China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. Taiwan's government says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.
China's military exercises are part of a sustained pressure campaign against Taiwan stretching back to 2022, said Sklenka, adding that once rare incursions into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone have now become normal.
However, while President Xi Jinping's order for China's military to be prepared for invasion of Taiwan by 2027 needed to be taken seriously, an actual attack was not inevitable or imminent, he said.
«I cannot underscore enough how devastating conflict in the Indo-Pacific region would be,» Sklenka said in the speech to Australia's
