China on Tuesday sent its army, navy, air and rocket forces to surround Taiwan for large-scale drills Beijing said were aimed at practising for "precision strikes" and a blockade of the self-ruled island. FRANCE 24's Sharon Gaffney speaks to Stéphane Corcuff from the Lyon Institute of Political Studies. He says that the US is ranking the protection of Taiwan and its position in the Pacific on the same level as its home territory.
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NewsTranscript
00:00This is Apropos. The EU is accusing China of increasing cross-strait tensions by holding
00:10large-scale military drills around Taiwan and calling on all parties to exercise restraint.
00:16Beijing began the drills without warning early this morning, accusing Taiwanese leaders of
00:22being separatists and parasites who were pushing the democratically run island into war. With
00:28the details, here's Caroline Bong.
00:32Chinese warships, troops and planes surrounded the island of Taiwan Tuesday in a blatant
00:37show of military force.
00:42The drill focuses on exercises on sea and air combat patrols, seizing control, sea and
00:47land strikes and blocking key areas and roads to test the combat capabilities of our troops.
00:53This is a severe warning and forceful containment against the Taiwan independent separatist
00:58forces.
01:01The Chinese government considers Taiwan a part of China and has previously threatened
01:06using force to bring the island under China's control. Taiwan was quick to respond with
01:11its own military and deployed land-based missile systems in response to the exercises. The
01:16government accused Beijing of sabre-rattling.
01:20China has continued to conduct military provocations in the international waters of various regions
01:25around the Taiwan Strait. It openly challenges the international order and is widely recognized
01:31by the international community as a troublemaker. The presidential office sternly condemns this.
01:39In China's crosshairs, Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te, who last month referred to China
01:45as an external hostile force. In this animation published by the Chinese government, Lai is
01:51pictured as a parasite infecting Taiwan. China may also be testing the waters to measure
01:57the new Trump administration's response to heightened tension in the region. These drills
02:02are the first of their kind since President Donald Trump took office. But U.S. Secretary
02:07of Defense Pete Hegseth said Sunday in Japan that the U.S. would ensure credible deterrence
02:12across the Taiwan Strait. And a Pentagon memo obtained by the Washington Post indicated
02:17that deterring Chinese aggression towards Taiwan remains a top priority for Washington.
02:22For more on this story, we're joined now from Taiwan by Stéphane Courcouf, a professor
02:28in contemporary Chinese politics at the Lyon Institute of Political Studies. Thanks so
02:33much Stéphane for being with us on the program. Firstly, tell us why are these drills happening
02:38now?
02:40There is probably a strong response from China to recent developments in the policy that
02:51the U.S. has towards Taiwan, which, as it was reminded, is considered by China as part
02:56of its territory. And since the first presidency of Donald Trump, which was pursued by the
03:03one of Joseph Biden, and again with Trump number two, these policies are changing in
03:10the same direction with more cooperation, more weapons sales, more military exercises
03:18together and more international space given to Taiwan, with very, very significant changes
03:26in recent months, in the last two months since President Trump was inaugurated.
03:34Do you believe that China is being effectively emboldened by the attitude that's been taken
03:39by Donald Trump?
03:41Well, some people say that, but actually, when Donald Trump was still running for president,
03:50he used to have some ambiguous words for Taiwan. That's true. But we should never forget that
03:57he was also, years before, the author of this huge policy shift towards China, starting with
04:05a commercial war. And I couldn't see how abandoning Taiwan would be a strong policy for him. Whereas
04:18everybody in the United States who is studying geopolitics knows perfectly that Taiwan is
04:25crucial for the maintenance of liberal democracies, the value chain of supply of
04:36microchips and AI products, and that once Taiwan is taken by PRC, the Pacific Ocean will be
04:49a not anymore an American ocean, but will be probably a Chinese ocean and Americans with
04:58a problematic cooperation. So, it was very obvious. And Donald Trump had some hesitation,
05:07apparently. But the tone was set a month ago by his Secretary of State, who said very clearly
05:14what I just said. And yesterday, three days ago, there was an article by the Washington Post,
05:25which leaked some information about the priorities, the strategy priorities by the Pentagon.
05:32The new strategy priorities, the first of each of which being to forbid China to invade Taiwan,
05:40because China invading Taiwan is its pathway to the Pacific. So, it's stated very clearly. And
05:50I think that's the proximal cause of China's attitude today.
05:57And the White House said earlier as well today that there shouldn't be any unilateral attempts
06:01to change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait. Stefan, you've referred as well to
06:07disclosures from the American Indo-Pacific strategy. What exactly was said there about
06:13Taiwan specifically? Taiwan is termed as, if I remember correctly,
06:22the sole priority consideration when defending the Pacific against China. That's very, very
06:31strong wording. And China is qualified in the same document as a pacing threat to the US.
06:43These words are very stern, very direct. But they also show that it is time to take into
06:50consideration the fact that China has already the first Navy in the world. Of course, the question
06:56of quantity is not enough to measure. But what is interesting is that preventing China to invade
07:05Taiwan was placed in this document at the same rank of priority as protecting US land at home.
07:14And then came another dimension, another priority, which was to share, to have the allies,
07:22American allies, sharing the burden of defence. But putting Taiwan on top of everything is
07:29absolutely new. And for us studying Taiwanese and Chinese geopolitics, there is nothing surprising.
07:35But it is very interesting to see that a president who had some not so nice words
07:43about Taiwan in recent months before being elected, has realised that America is really
07:52depending on Taiwan. If Taiwan needs to be used in the worst of the ideas, then America has to
07:59protect Taiwan. But it's much more than that. Taiwan is also very crucial, as I said, in the
08:06value chain of what is preparing, what the US and China are competing for.
08:12I mean, AI as the fourth industrial revolution, Taiwan is a strong part of it, and America knows
08:21it. And when it comes to China, then, Stefan, what kind of message do you think it's trying
08:26to send with all of this? And are we seeing a real ramping up of the rhetoric coming from Beijing?
08:33It's accusing Taiwanese leaders today of being separatists, using words like parasites. These
08:40drills appear to be linked to efforts to punish Taiwan, which is something we haven't
08:45seen previously, really.
08:49So that kind of very harsh language on Taiwan is not so rare. It's
08:55regularly heard each time Taiwan gets the visit by an American official, or when a Taiwanese
09:05official, such as the president we see on the screen, visits America. Last time there was such
09:13a big, big fury in Beijing was probably when Nancy Pelosi came, though since Nancy Pelosi came in
09:212020, from then to now, we have had several rounds of military exercises. What is China trying to
09:30show? In a way, China has to do this because it asserts her claim. If China was not doing that,
09:39then her claim would not appear as credible. But the problem is that once China does that,
09:47of course, it appears in the wider world as an aggressive country, because everybody knows that
09:54China has not managed Taiwan since 1949. So maybe it's a claim by China, but it's not a fact.
10:04We know more and more, I mean, not we specialists, but the public knows more and more that Taiwan
10:12has a sovereign government, which has been there since 1945, when Taiwan was integrated in the
10:19Republic of China, then on the mainland, and that the Chinese Civil War didn't put an end to it.
10:24That's what Mao Zedong said. That was the PRC says today. But that's not the fact. And Taiwan,
10:30as the Republic of China, still represented China for many years in the UN. So it was and it is
10:37still a sovereign country. So China, actually, when he's doing these military exercises,
10:47proves that it's like irredentist, not able to see the world as it is now,
10:53and claiming territories that were not really part of China, but part of the Manchu Empire,
10:58which is different. But of course, China also has good reasons to do these military drills, because
11:04China tests its military, its material, its organization, its strategy. We had in yesterday,
11:15because it's 4.30 now in Taiwan, but we had yesterday, one of the three aircraft carriers
11:27which cruised in the Taiwan Strait, the Shandong, and it was its third year of training and
11:44trying to get accustomed to its mission to protect the Chinese interests in the Taiwan Strait and
11:54South China Sea. So China uses this also to practice, to organize itself, to test its readiness,
12:02but also, of course, to test the readiness of Taiwan and of Taiwan's, the reaction of Taiwan's
12:08allies, such as the Americans. So that's very useful. And of course, collecting information,
12:14we had like 71 planes yesterday. There have been more sometimes, but that's one of the biggest
12:23drills in years. And China, of course, gets intelligence too.
12:29Stéphane, we'll have to leave it there for now. Thanks so much for being with us. And thanks for
12:32getting up so early to speak with us. That is Stéphane Corcou for Professor in Contemporary
12:38Chinese Politics at the Lyon Institute of Political Studies. And that's it.