China launched its most extensive war games around Taiwan on Monday to showcase Beijing’s ability to cut off the island from outside support in a conflict, testing Taipei’s resolve to defend itself and its arsenal of U.S.-made weapons.
The Eastern Theatre Command said it had deployed troops, warships, fighter jets and artillery for its “Justice Mission 2025” exercises to encircle the democratically governed island, conduct live fire and simulated strikes on land and sea targets, and drills to blockade Taiwan’s main ports.
The live-firing exercises will continue on Tuesday across a record seven zones designated by China’s Maritime Safety Administration, making the drills the largest to date by total coverage and in areas closer to Taiwan than previous exercises. The military had initially said artillery firing would be confined to five zones.
Soooo China is building sophisticated, highly specialized barges for establishing a beachhead without a harbor and moving heavy machinery across. These would be pretty helpful in a sustained campaign against Taiwan.
These ships happen to be able to connect to the many Chinese “civilian” roll on-roll off (roro) ferries that are built to military spec and can handle Chinese tanks.
These “civilian” roros happen to participate in military exercises.
Considering this all took place well before the arms deal, that’s probably a good reason why China can be considered the aggressor. Maybe the $11.1 billion in arms deals is in response to that?
There’s also xi jinping saying that the unification of Taiwan and China is “unstoppable” in a speech today, right after these military exercises.