Joint Sword 2024A
Beijing launched the Joint Sword 2024A exercise three days after Taiwan's new President Lai Ching-te took office and made an inauguration speech that China denounced as a "confession of independence". The war games kicked off Thursday morning, as aircraft and naval vessels surrounded Taiwan to conduct mock attacks against "important targets". Beginning at 7:45 am on May 23, the Chinese military conducted extensive maneuvers around Taiwan, including patrols, battle simulations, and live ammunition drills. The exercises, termed "punishment" for Taiwan’s "separatist acts," involved various joint service training exercises and were notable for several historic firsts.
A total of 111 Chinese aircraft and dozens of naval vessels took part in the drills over two days, according to Taiwan's defence ministry. China's army published images of the drills' "highlights", featuring missile-launching trucks ready to fire, fighter jets taking off and naval officers looking through binoculars at Taiwanese ships. Meng Xiangqing, a professor from Beijing-based National Defense University, told state news agency Xinhua that People's Liberation Army vessels "were getting closer to the island than ever before".
The Eastern Theater Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) held the Joint Sword-2024A military exercise surrounding the Taiwan Straits on May 23-24 as a "punishment against separatist acts by 'Taiwan independence' forces" and "a stern warning against interference and provocation by external forces." It was an act to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity and aligned with the expectations of compatriots across the Straits and international friends who support China's reunification efforts.
Beijing launched similar exercises in August and April last year after Taiwanese leaders visited the United States. China also launched major military exercises in 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited Taiwan. The scale of the most recent drills was "significant, but is nowhere near as big, it seems, as last August's", Wen-Ti Sung, a non-resident fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub, told AFP. Sung and other analysts told AFP that the geographic scope of the exercises had increased, with a new focus on isolating Taiwan's outlying islands.
The drills took place in the Taiwan Strait and to the north, south and east of the island, as well as areas around the Taipei-administered islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin. Tong Zhen, an expert from the Academy of Military Sciences, told Xinhua the drills "mainly targeted the ringleaders and political centre of 'Taiwan independence', and involved simulated precision strikes on key political and military targets".
According to media reports, the PLA had already normalized its surveillance patrols in the Straits, reflecting the Chinese mainland's goodwill. The large-scale Joint Sword-2024A exercise involving land, sea, and air forces was staged in response to the provocative rhetoric on May 20 by Lai Ching-te, the new leader of China's Taiwan region, in which he brazenly promoted the idea that Taiwan and the Chinese mainland "are not subordinate to each other," and hyped up the concept of "relying on the U.S. to resist China" and "seeking independence through military means."
The PLA's actions were reactive, similar to the military drills conducted in August 2022 after Nancy Pelosi, then Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, made her controversial visit to Taiwan. The Joint Sword-2024A military exercise was not means, as claimed by Lai's camp and the U.S., aimed at disrupting the status quo. On the contrary, the purpose was to prevent the current situation in the Taiwan Straits from being disrupted.
Compared with the military exercise in August 2022, this one had many new features. First, in addition to blockading the Taiwan island and getting closer to the island "than ever before," it also conducted encirclement exercises around the Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin islands. Besides the traditional navy and air military forces, China's maritime law enforcement forces also participated. The name of the drill itself implies continuous pressure on the Taiwan region. If the Taiwan authorities continue to provoke, then Joint Sword-2024B military drills may be staged.
The Joint Sword-2024A military exercise lasted only two days and did not use live ammunition like the missiles it used when Pelosi left the island. In other words, although the scale and scope of this military exercise was larger, the time span and intensity of the strike did not significantly exceed the previous one's. Therefore, the Chinese mainland's use of military means to punish "Taiwan independence" was moderate, reasonable, and did not escalate indefinitely.
Starting from 7:45 on 23rd, the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) conducted joint military drills in the Taiwan Strait, the north, south and east of Taiwan Island, as well as areas around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu and Dongyin. After the Joint Operations Command Center of the PLA Eastern Theater Command issued the operation order, several destroyer-frigate formations assigned to the navy of the theater command maneuvered to the waters around Taiwan Island at high speed and in different directions. Upon reaching the preplanned target sea areas, all the ships carried out combat disposition rapidly. Then the various formations conducted simulated multidimensional saturation strikes by employing multiple types of weapons.
The air force under the PLA Easter Theater Command sent dozens of fighter sorties to conduct systematic combat patrols around Taiwan and cruises surrounding the outlaying islands. Flight formations consisting of multiple-type aircraft flew to the designated airspaces with live ammunition and cooperated with the destroyers and frigates and missile boats to conduct simulated strikes against the "enemy's" high-value military targets as well as their vessels and aircraft in reconnaissance and patrol missions.
At the same time, the troops of the army and the rocket force entered preplanned areas according to the order, and the firing units immediately occupied firing positions and got prepared for the firing tasks. Then they carried out joint strikes and other training subjects with naval and air assault forces. Supported by the joint operational system of the PLA Eastern Theater Command, the troops also conducted drills on subjects such as anti-sea assaults, land strikes, air defense and anti-submarine in the waters and airspaces to the north and south of Taiwan Island, further testing the troops' combat capabilities of multi-domain coordination, joint strike and so forth.
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