China Kicks Off More Drills Near Taiwan, Pushing Back at US

By Bloomberg News

Apr 1, 2025 (Bloomberg) –China held military exercises around Taiwan that involved the most naval vessels in nearly a year – a move that comes days after the US vowed to deter Beijing’s aggression in the region.

The Chinese military launched drills Tuesday “from multiple directions,” Senior Colonel Shi Yi said in a statement from the People’s Liberation Army. The maneuvers would practice an “assault on maritime and ground targets,” and a “blockade of key areas and sea lanes to test the joint operation capabilities of troops,” Shi said, adding that army, naval, air and rocket forces were used.

The Defense Ministry in Taipei said it detected 19 Chinese ships — the most since the PLA conducted maneuvers after Taiwan President Lai Ching-te was inaugurated in May last year. Taiwan has also monitored the movements of the Shandong aircraft carrier in recent days, the ministry said in a separate statement.

Read More: Hegseth’s Good Cop, Bad Cop Approach to Allies Shows China Focus

The latest drills test the Trump administration’s unfolding foreign policy, which is focusing on countering Beijing’s ambitions in East Asia, while pushing Europe to spend more on defense to ward off Russia. During recent trips to the Philippines and Japan, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pledged missile systems, troops and other resources to counter China. Hegseth also said Washington would provide “credible deterrence” in the Indo-Pacific, including in the Taiwan Strait. 

The comments were warmly received in Taipei, which has seen the Trump administration question support for Kyiv while diplomatically embracing Moscow, Ukraine’s invader. President Donald Trump has also worried officials in Taiwan by saying it should pay the US for protection and accused the archipelago of stealing American semiconductor business.  

The drills also follow the Washington Post reporting about a secret US memo that spells out how the US military should deny any attack on Taiwan by China. The document signed by Hegseth has been circulated in the Pentagon, the newspaper said. Bloomberg News has not confirmed its contents.

Ja Ian Chong, associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, said a range of factors were likely behind Beijing’s decision to hold drills now, “but overall it’s still going to be about trying to see how much Beijing can push and get away with.”

China’s goal was “to weaken confidence in US deterrence” so governments including Taiwan’s might give in to Beijing, he said.

The latest maneuvers started as the world’s biggest military by the number of active personnel is mired in corruption scandals. The US Defense Department said late last year that the probes could hinder the modernization goals China has set for its armed forces. By repeatedly holding exercises around Taiwan, Beijing may be trying to show its armed forces are ready for any contingency despite the turmoil.

China has now held at least six sets of armed forces drills near Taiwan since Lai took office. Beijing sees the democracy of 23 million people as its territory, needing to be brought under its control eventually, by force if that’s what it takes.

Illustrating Beijing’s push to place Lai under maximum pressure, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in an evening briefing that a cyberattack was carried out alongside alongside the drills, though it didn’t give details on what was targeted. Officials in Taipei also said China sailed Coast Guard vessels near Taiwanese offshore islands.

Beijing deeply dislikes Lai, believing he wants to formalize independence. It also bristles at moves he’s taking to deal with China’s assertiveness, such as his push to counter its infiltration of Taiwan’s military and government institutions.

The government department in Beijing that handles Taiwan issues said in a statement on Tuesday that Lai’s approach served to “rampantly” provoke China. “We will never tolerate this, and we must resolutely counteract and severely punish them,” the Taiwan Affairs Office said.

Markets in Taiwan tend to shrug off China’s military activity, and the latest occurrence was no exception. The benchmark Taiex gauge of stocks rose 2.8%, rebounding from a selloff a day earlier. The Taiwan dollar slipped to 33.195 versus the greenback.

China has named some previous drills held around Taiwan, such as two last year called Joint Sword A and B. It has refrained from publicly doing that lately, possibly to convey that the activity is now a normal event that doesn’t require a special designation.

Also, Jack Chen, director of the advocacy group Formosa Defense Vision, said that switch by the Chinese was “possibly to reinforce the impression that they can transition from drills to actual combat at any time.”

For the first time on Tuesday, the PLA ran a livestream on Chinese social media to coincide with the exercises. It featured a newscaster discussing the military activity, martial music and footage that appeared to show Kinmen, a Taiwanese outpost just off the Chinese coast.

Read More: A War Over Taiwan Is a $10 Trillion Risk to the Global Economy

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

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