Anti-submarine attack and sea raid exercises begin, as Beijing maintains pressure on Taiwan’s defences

China’s military has announced new drills near Taiwan, including anti-submarine attack and sea raid operations, a day after its major live-fire exercises targeting the territory were supposed to end.

The defence ministry also defended its shelving of military talks with the US in protest against Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last week, which have raised concerns about potential accidents escalating into conflict.

Last week, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) targeted Taiwan with days of major live-fire exercises, which were scheduled to end on Sunday. Their end was never announced by the PLA, but notices of avoidance were reportedly lifted and normal sea and air traffic had resumed.

The Chinese government claims Taiwan as a province of China and has not ruled out taking it by force.

At the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, the losing Kuomintang government fled to the island of Taiwan, establishing the Republic of China (ROC) government in exile. On the mainland the Chinese Communist party (CCP) established the People’s Republic of China. 

From the 1970s onwards many nations began switching their formal ties from the ROC to Beijing, and today fewer than 15 world governments recognise the ROC (Taiwan) as a country.

The CCP has never ruled over Taiwan and since the end of the civil war Taiwan has enjoyed de facto independence. 

Since its decades-long period of martial law ended in the 1980s, Taiwan has also grown to become a vibrant democracy with free elections and media.

But unification is a key goal of the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping. The island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has said Taiwan is already a sovereign country with no need to declare independence, but Beijing regards Taiwan’s democratically elected government as separatists.

Under Xi’s rule, aggression towards Taiwan has increased and analysts believe the threat of invasion is at its highest in decades. 

In recent years the People’s Liberation Army has sent hundreds of war planes into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone, as part of greatly increased “grey zone” activities, which are combat-adjacent but do not meet the threshold of war. 

Taiwan is working to modernise its military and is buying large numbers of military assets and weapons from the US in the hope it can deter Xi and the CCP from making a move. Helen Davidson 

On Monday, however, China’s Eastern Theatre Command announced it would conduct joint drills focusing on anti-submarine and sea assault operations – confirming the fears of some security analysts and diplomats that Beijing would maintain pressure on Taiwan’s defences. No further details were provided and it was not clear when the exercises would start.

At a press briefing on Monday, a Taiwan defence ministry spokesperson said it was monitoring the situation.

Separately, the PLA had already also announced China’s live-fire exercises in the Yellow Sea, from Sunday until 15 August, in five exclusion zones. Taiwan authorities said the areas would not affect its international flight routes.

Pelosi’s visit last week infuriated China, which regards Taiwan as its own territory and responded with test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei for the first time, as well as ditching some lines of dialogue with Washington.

The island’s defence ministry said Chinese military ships, aircraft and drones had simulated attacks on the island and its navy, and conducted multiple sea and air incursions over the median line.

About 10 warships each from China and Taiwan manoeuvred at close quarters around the line on Sunday, according to a person familiar with the situation who is involved with security planning. The defence ministry in Taiwan said it had sent aircraft and ships to react “appropriately”.

At Monday’s press conference, the ministry spokesperson said no PLA craft had entered Taiwan’s territorial waters, stretching 12 nautical mile out from its coastline, during the drills. He did not say how close the PLA had been detected, or if it was inside the 24-nautical-mile contiguous zone.

He said the military had also identified multiple cyberwarfare attacks allegedly from China, and at least 272 attempts to spread disinformation.

Amid the furious responses, China also called off formal talks involving theatre-level commands, defence policy coordination and military maritime consultations on Friday as Pelosi left the region.

China’s defence ministry spokesperson Wu Qian defended the decision to suspend military channels, saying in an online post on Monday: “The current tense situation in the Taiwan strait is entirely provoked and created by the US side on its own initiative, and the US side must bear full responsibility and serious consequences for this.

“The bottom line cannot be broken, and communication requires sincerity,” Wu said.

Pentagon, state department and White House officials condemned the move, describing it as an irresponsible overreaction.

China’s cutting of some of its few communication links with the US military raises the risk of an accidental escalation over Taiwan at a critical moment, according to security analysts and diplomats.

One US official noted that Chinese officials had not responded to calls from senior Pentagon officials amid the tensions last week, but that they did not see this as a formal severing of ties with senior figures, such as the US defence secretary, Lloyd Austin.

Asked directly about those reports, Wu said: “China’s relevant countermeasures are a necessary warning to the provocations of the United States and Taiwan, and a legitimate defence of national sovereignty and security.”