China Holds Unannounced Drills Across Western Pacific

China carried out a large, unannounced military deployment and exercises across the western Pacific and around Taiwan in early November, according to Taiwanese officials, who said the activity included simulated attacks on military forces and cities. The reporting does not establish that China imposed a blockade or that an attack on Taiwan was imminent.

A senior Taiwanese security official told Reuters that the exercises involved simulated strikes on targets including Taiwan. Taiwanese officials also reported that more than 100 Chinese naval and coast guard vessels operated across the western Pacific earlier in the month. That estimate was attributed to Taiwanese officials and was not independently corroborated in the accounts.

Taiwan National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu said the vessel count later declined, while naval formations from China’s Northern, Eastern and Southern Theater Commands and the Liaoning carrier strike group remained active east of the Philippines. Taiwan’s Defense Minister Wellington Koo described the formations as conducting area-denial exercises, which he said could impede outside forces entering the region in a conflict.