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China simulated shelling attacks on key targets in Taiwan on Sunday, April 9, the second day of a large-scale encirclement exercise. The maneuvers will continue on Monday with live fire exercises. Interview with Peer de Jong, former colonel and vice president of the Themiis Training Institute, dedicated to stabilization and peacebuilding activities.
By Jelena Tomic
RFI: What is Beijing trying to prove with these military maneuvers?
Peer de Jong: The complete encirclement exercise is intended to show that China is capable of establishing a complete blockade around the island of Taiwan. That is why this exercise brings together a good dozen large ships of all kinds, planes, aircraft…
This area is extremely American, with the US 5th Fleet cruising in the region and alliances with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. This area around Taiwan is an outpost center totally controlled by the Americans. Any Chinese intrusion into this area puts the entire military apparatus in jeopardy, which is extremely significant, since the United States considers the Pacific its “mare nostrum” (“our sea”, in Latin). Once again, between the American eagle and the Chinese dragon, we are witnessing a kind of round of observations in a framework that is extremely complex to understand.
What are simulated fire exercises against key targets?
It is an exercise that takes place on two levels. The first is the total isolation of Taiwan. The second is to show that anyone who approaches Taiwan and tries to escape would automatically be destroyed by these precision shots. This is what the Chinese will try to demonstrate with these simulated firings at key targets.
The Taiwanese targets that could be hit by Chinese weapons could be infrastructures, command posts, troop concentrations, protection systems… Because Taiwan is an extremely well-protected island, with a whole network of bunkers, underground tunnels… And the Chinese are probably looking to find out more. So this entire Taiwanese defensive facility could be hit in a first salvo. The notion of precision is very important. Here, the missiles are fired at a few tens of meters.
After the exercise of total encirclement of the island, the Chinese army begins exercises with live fire on Monday. What are the potential targets and what risks do these maneuvers entail?
When nuclear submarines and missiles are tested, it is usually with live fire. All the world’s armies regularly conduct live fire and this takes place at sea.
But when a ship tests its missiles, it launches one or two — sea-to-ground or sea-to-sea missiles, for example — that fall into international waters, so there’s nothing to say. The problem is that [los chinos] they will try to fire these missiles as close as possible to Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone. What you have to fear is a shooting accident.
With this exercise, the Chinese want to show that they have very high-precision weaponry and targets that they have set in the Taiwan Strait, which is right between China and Taiwan. So they’re going to try to show that they can shoot hundreds of kilometers extremely accurately against these targets that “will have been proposed or demonstrated” beforehand.
Called “Joint Sword”, the operation involves destroyers, fast missile launch boats, fighter jets, tankers and jammers. Why are jammers so important in this drill?
Jammers do two things. The first is to interfere with all the means of communication. This is very important when you want to “dominate” your opponent. Secondly, the jammers block everything related to the missiles and their trajectory, that is, the response. With this exercise, the Chinese will theoretically study Taiwan’s defense capability.
In the event of actual war, Taiwan’s anti-missile, anti-aircraft, and anti-surface battery system could retaliate against Chinese ships hundreds of kilometers away. The goal of the exercise is to show that inhibitors would make this possible Taiwanese response almost impossible.
