China's Taiwan blockade military drills 'disable energy ports' psychological warfare intensify
China's new Taiwan blockade military drills intensify psychological warfare and 'disable energy ports' were attempted within 24 miles of the island.
China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) joint military drills that began on the 7th, including the "Joint Sword-2024B" Taiwan encirclement drill, were conducted as a 'key port blockade' that would cut off Taiwan's maritime lifeline for trade, food, and energy imports, Reuters and Global Times reported on the 15th.
China's ongoing "Joint Sword" military drills are the first to include areas within Taiwan's 24-mile (39 km) border, and are intense in terms of rapid mock attacks and ship-to-ship aircraft deployments.
“This is to demonstrate China’s ability to cut off energy imports, especially at ports where liquefied natural gas (LNG) is unloaded,” Zhang Chi, a military expert at China National Defense University, told the English-language Global Times. “The PLA wants to prove that it has the ability to cut off Taiwan’s energy resources, and this has important implications for its economy and society.”
“This time there was a rather special element of what we call isolation or blockade, during which they practiced their blockade capabilities,” Su Tzu-yun, director of the National Defense and Security Research Bureau, Taiwan’s top military strategy group, told Reuters.
Foreign military attachés and analysts say they are closely watching this element of the exercise because such tactics could pressure and isolate Taiwan ahead of a full-scale invasion, Reuters reported.
Reuters pointed out that the recent military exercise was characterized by “intensified propaganda,” and reported that “Chinese war games were accompanied by the release of military videos depicting missile attacks on Taiwan, and the devilish, pointy-eared President Lai Ching-te was portrayed as a “separatist.” Chinese naval sailors released two videos directly commenting on weather conditions and their own positions in the areas surrounding Taiwan’s major ports of Keelung and Kaohsiung, which Taiwanese authorities said were part of a “cognitive war” aimed at undermining the credibility of Taiwan’s military.
China deployed a huge number of coast guard ships on simultaneous patrols around the island of Taiwan during this military exercise. “This is unprecedented,” said Collin Koh, a professor at Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, adding that the move “may signal a new norm for China’s gray zone pressure on Taiwan.”
Shortly after the Chinese military drills began, Taiwan’s coast guard said it had detained a Chinese national using a rubber boat to approach one of Taiwan’s heavily militarized islands off the Chinese city of Xiamen.