Taiwan's intelligence chief says China could be changing how it publicizes routine military drills near the country, making them appear more threatening as a way to put pressure on Taiwan and wear down its defenses. It comes as Taiwan sees an unprecedented amount of Chinese military activity around the country.
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00:01In the past year, China has conducted not one, not two, not three, but four large-scale military drills around Taiwan.
00:12And that's prompting concern here in Taipei as security officials reveal just how quickly China's military is evolving.
00:19A new report from Taiwan's National Security Bureau shows that Beijing's so-called large-scale exercises
00:25could be smaller, regular drills that are hyped up to be a bigger threat.
00:30We will be careful, because the Department of the Department has also told us that
00:35many of these exercises have been taken together as a sort of counter-missive exercise.
00:42It's a sort of counter-missive exercise that can cause people's fear.
00:47Earlier in April, China launched large-scale drills known as Straight Thunder 2025A,
00:52which saw dozens of aircraft and warships around Taiwan.
00:56Beijing says the exercises focus on precision strikes and were in response to Taiwan President
01:01Lai Qingde announcing a plan to counter Chinese espionage.
01:05But Taiwan's Security Bureau says this is an excuse.
01:09This time of training is quite special.
01:12Because the President was in the 3-year-old conference conference
01:15in the 3-year-old conference conference,
01:16to make some adjustments to prevent the spread of the spread of China.
01:20But the time of training has been taken to the 1-year-old and 2-year-old.
01:23If it's a counter-missive exercise, the time will not be taken so long.
01:27So we can decide that, through this training,
01:29we can take some pressure from Taiwan to counter-missive exercise.
01:31But whatever the reason for the drills, Taiwan says it's seeing an unprecedented number of Chinese planes around the country.
01:38The total amount of Chinese incursions into the country's air defense identification zone
01:42has skyrocketed since they were first reported in 2019.
01:46Four months into this year, and China's military, known as the PLA,
01:50have already tripled the number of planes it's sent around Taiwan in the entirety of 2020.
01:55Essentially what we've seen is the PLA gradually expand its presence on a daily basis to surround Taiwan,
02:03and then integrate new capabilities, kind of more far-reaching training exercises at a smaller level and a larger level,
02:10but really to kind of get used to operating in an actual operational environment that is the Taiwan theater.
02:16Despite Taiwan not responding to Chinese aggression with its own drills, it remains on alert,
02:21practicing how to mobilize its forces quickly for any situation that might arise.
02:26Justin Wu and Hami Okan for Taiwan Plus.