Over the past two weeks, China has been actively conducting military exercises in the waters of East Asia, deploying more than 100 naval vessels, including ships from the Navy and the Coast Guard. This is reported by Reuters, citing intelligence sources in the region.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China began to increase its presence in these waters following a diplomatic protest issued by the Chinese Foreign Ministry on November 14 regarding statements made by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi about Taiwan.
Since then, Chinese military vessels have been regularly patrolling the waters from the southern part of the Yellow Sea to the East China Sea, the Taiwan Strait, and the disputed South China Sea.
“This goes far beyond China's national defense needs and poses risks for all parties involved,” said one source to Reuters.
He noted that the scale of the current exercises exceeds those conducted last December, which raised alarms in Taiwan.
This time, regional countries are closely monitoring the developments, but their intelligence agencies do not consider this deployment as a significant risk of armed confrontation.
“This is a major exercise. However, clearly, it is just routine drills,” emphasized a representative from one of the Asian defense departments.
Intelligence data confirms that the number of Chinese military vessels near Taiwan has not significantly increased, and their operational behavior near the island has remained unchanged.
Chinese military forces simulate attacks during the escort of foreign military vessels passing through the Taiwan Strait to assert Beijing's claims of control over this critical maritime route.