PLA Launches Missiles During Live Fire Exercises Around Taiwan

Aug. 4, 2022 (EIRNS)—The PLA exercises around Taiwan seem to be well underway. Joint military exercises around the island of Taiwan by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army continued Aug. 3 with a joint blockade, sea assault, and land and air combat trainings, involving the use of advanced weapons, including J-20 stealth fighter jets and DF-17 hypersonic missiles, Global Times reported last night. “The multi-subject targeted drills including sea target assaults, strikes on ground targets and airspace control operations and the precision-guided munitions live-fire practice conducted by troops of multiple arms and services under the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the waters and airspace around the Taiwan Island are actually solemn deterrence against the collusion between the U.S. and Taiwan,” said Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Senior Col. Tan Kefei in a statement issued today. Speaking of the island’s pro-independence ruling party, he said: “We sternly warn the U.S. side and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities that the scheme to use Taiwan to contain China is doomed to fail, and seeking foreign support to gain ‘Taiwan independence’ is a dead end. The collusion and provocations made by the U.S. and the DPP authorities will only push Taiwan into the abyss of disaster, and bring great suffering to Taiwan compatriots.”

In an update, today, Global Times reported that “the unprecedented drills featured advanced weapons, including long-range rocket artillery, anti-ship ballistic missiles, stealth fighter jets and an aircraft carrier group with a nuclear-powered submarine, as well as realistic tactics that simulated a real reunification-by-force operation, demonstrating and honing the PLA’s capabilities to not only take over the island, but also prevent any external interference including from the U.S....”

The live-fire portion of the drills included the launching of 11 ballistic missiles, including as many as 4 fired from the coast of Fujian Province that passed over Taiwan before landing in the exercise zone east of the island. A video released by CCTV showed that one of the missile types featured in the drills is the DF-15—a short-range ballistic missile with a range of up to 500 km—and that the missiles landed in exercise zones in the northeast, east and south of Taiwan island.