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China has made no secret of its desire to annex Taiwan, which it may do by cutting off supplies and imposing a blockade on the self-governing island. To thwart the US military from assisting Taiwan, the Chinese military recently conducted drills, according to a report by The Eurasian Times.
According to an analysis by the Japan Institute for National Fundamentals, as quoted by The Eurasian Times, the goal of the December 2024 Chinese simulation was to train to prevent US forces from accessing the sea surrounding the island. To prevent American warships from entering the area, China stationed 18 destroyers and frigates east of the "first island chain," which stretches from the Philippines to Japan's Nansei Islands, during the war drills. The exercise took place from December 6-12, as reported by The Eurasian Times. It is reported that China used anti-access/area denial (A2AD) tactics to keep US forces from passing the first island chain, which is situated west of the second chain, and to the west of the "second island chain," which stretches from Guam to the Izu Islands in Japan. For China, it was the biggest military drill in almost thirty years. China not only showed that it could blockade Taiwan, but it also asserted its dominance over the First Island Chain, which includes the South and East China Seas and extends from Japan to Indonesia. One significant event was the first coordination of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern, Southern, and Northern Theatre Commands, which allowed them to put pressure on Taiwan and its allies by conducting large-scale combined arms drills throughout a wide area as per The Eurasian Times. China also deployed more than 60 PLA-Navy warships and 30 China Coast Guard vessels in areas ranging from the South China Sea to Japan's Ryukyu Islands, in addition to the more than 134 PLA airplanes that flew during the three-day exercises near the islands as reported. Without receiving live-fire training, the Chinese forces practised attacking foreign ships, obstructing maritime routes, and intercepting commercial vessels. In order to restrict access to the First Island Chain, the PLA-Navy also constructed two barriers southeast of Taiwan, as reported by The Eurasian Times. (ANI)
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