Yu-cheng Chen
Recently, China conducted a series of large-scale military activities near Taiwan and in the Western Pacific, drawing significant attention from regional and international actors. According to Reuters, China deployed 90 naval vessels (a number unprecedented in recent history) and set up seven “temporary reserved areas” of airspace to the east of its eastern Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, targeting the entire First Island Chain.
Furthermore, a large number of People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft repeatedly entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). Data from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) indicates that the PLA deployed over 130 sorties of military aircraft and dozens of naval vessels from December 9 to 11. These actions reflect Beijing’s strategic calculations and its policy direction under both domestic and international pressure.
The scope of these military activities extends beyond the Taiwan Strait to include waters near Japan and the Philippines, as well as areas outside the First Island Chain. Particularly, the PLA’s naval deployments east of Taiwan formed a distinctive “dual wall” formation, indicating an intention to demonstrate anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities.
Taiwan’s MND assessed that the military actions aimed not only at rehearsing a comprehensive blockade of Taiwan but also at extending the PLA’s operational reach, with a broader objective of “internalizing” the Taiwan Strait. This aligns with the PLA’s operational principle of “training where battles are fought.”
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