Tai-yuan Yang and K. Tristan Tang
On April 1, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command announced a joint training drill (联合演训) around Taiwan. The next day, it declared the initiation of the “Strait Thunder-2025A Drill” (海峡雷霆-2025A演练) (Xinhua, April 1, April 2). According to data from Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense, over the course of these two days, the PLA deployed 135 aircraft, 38 naval vessels, and 12 official vessels in the surrounding area.
Strait Thunder-2025A was a routine large-scale training drill. The PLA has conducted such activities with increasing frequency in recent years and, as indicated by the “A” in the drill’s title, will continue to do so in the near future. The scope of military activities during the recent drill is depicted in Figure 1 (Ministry of National Defense, April 2, April 3; LTN, April 1, April 2). Numerous reports and analyses have focused on the strategic or political considerations behind the PLA’s military actions, as well as the logic behind the naming of the operations (CNN, April 1; CNA, April 1, April 2; Global Times, April 2; The Guardian, April 2). However, few have examined the military implications of these actions themselves.
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