China's All-Rounded Sanctions：Drill Missiles through Taiwan's Airspace
Summary Report by Taiwan Weekly
The whirlwind visit by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of the United States House of Representatives to Taiwan provoked Beijing’s stringent countermeasures including sanctions in military, diplomatic, economic, and other aspects against Taiwan. After Pelosi left Taiwan, live-fire military exercises were conducted in six designated ocean areas surrounding Taiwan for three consecutive days from August 4, launching more than ten Dongfeng missiles, four of which flying through Taiwan’s airspace. On August 6, Beijing further announced long-term military exercises ranging from 10 days to a month in the southern part of the Yellow Sea and the Bohai Sea.
The broad scope and strong force of this wave of countermeasures by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was first seen after the resumption of exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait in the late 1980s. This was also the first time ever since 1949 that the six exercise areas were so close to Taiwan, forming a situation of encirclement and blockade.
According to statistics of the three days, there were 101 sorties of airplanes cruising near the center line of the Taiwan strait, and 13 or 14 naval battleships per day. In addition, seven batches of total 11 drones entering the airspace over the restricted waters of Kinmen and were countered by the warning signal flares.
PLA military drills began with missile launches on August 4, the first day. The Ministry of National Defense (MND) monitored the situation but withheld details about missile models and launch locations. On that evening, Japan’s Ministry of Defense announced the trajectory of the missiles, stating that PLA launched a total of nine missiles, four of which flew over the island of Taiwan, including the sky over the capital city of Taipei. The news caused an uproar among the people of Taiwan, questioning why the MND did not issue an air strike alert. The MND responded late at night: "The main trajectory of the ballistic missiles were outside the atmosphere and were not a threat to the land area down under." Therefore, no alert was issued.
Military experts said that Taiwan has the best long-range early warning radar in Asia. When the missiles flew over the capital, the military must have monitored the situation, but chose not to announce it due to political consideration. It is understood that the Air Defense Missile Force affiliated to the Air Force used the long-range early warning radar and the Missile Early Warning Center to track the trajectory of the missiles on the afternoon of the August 4 but did not launch an interception.
In response to the PLA exercises, all command levels of Taiwan’s military are tense. As the PLA has successively announced further exercises in the Yellow Sea and Bohai Sea, in order to prevent the PLA from "turning exercise to war," the army is “on strengthened alert," and there is no timetable for cancellation of alert.
Senior officials including Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng and Chief of the General Staff Chen Pao-yu took turns to assume command post at the Heng Shan Military Command Center. The Navy and Air Force continued to strengthen combat readiness. In response to the PLA aircraft activities around the Strait center line, each air wing had multiple batches of fighter jets scrambling every day to monitor the airspace. More than a dozen major naval vessels went out to sea to monitor the PLA warships in the western and eastern open seas.
Since August 5, the MND has taken the initiative to disclose that the naval shore-based anti-ship missiles have been put into combat readiness operations, showing the air and sea operations of Taiwan military are rather tense in response to the impending threat of the PLA warships and continued large scale exercise.
President Tsai Ing-wen said in a video talk on the evening of August 4, "Such a deliberate and continuing heightened military threats is irresponsible to Taiwan and the international community,” and solemnly called on China to be rational and exercise restraint. She stressed, "We will not escalate conflicts, will not provoke disputes, but we will firmly defend our sovereignty and national security, and stick to the defense of democracy and freedom.” She continued on Facebook on the evening of August 6 that 27 ambassadors of Taiwan had spoken out to mainstream media around the world immediately, urging the international community to extend more support to the democratic Taiwan.
In addition to military intimidation, the mainland has also announced a series of economic and political sanctions against Taiwan. On the economic front, more than 100 food factories are banned from exporting their products to the mainland. Spokesman Ma Xiaoguang of mainland China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of the State Council, further stated on August 2 that Taiwan’s export of grapefruit, lemon, orange, and other citrus fruits to the mainland is also subject to a temporary ban, which also applies to the import of fish including fresh white hairtail and frozen horse mackerel; at the same time, the export of natural sand to Taiwan is also suspended.
In terms of political sanctions, the mainland announced that it will impose criminal punishment against "Taiwan independence diehards" and hold them accountable for life. It also imposed criminal detention and investigation on the visiting Taiwanese Yang Chi-yuan on the grounds that he "has been engaged in separatist activities for Taiwan independence for a long time and is suspected of jeopardizing national security."
The TAO also announced that it will punish the affiliates of "Taiwan independence diehards," naming the Taiwan Foundation for Democracy and International Cooperation and Development Fund, as well as four companies including Speed Tech Corp, Hyweb Technology, Skyla Corp and SkyEyes GPS Technology, prohibiting mainland business entities or individuals from interacting with them and banning the person in charge from entry into the mainland.
Apart from sanctioning Taiwan, the mainland announced eight countermeasures against the United States on August 5, including cutting off communication channels and cooperation between the United States and China in the fields of military, anti-drug, transnational crime, climate change, and illegal immigrant repatriation. In the meantime, sanctions will be imposed on Speaker Pelosi and her immediate family members.
Secretary of State Anthony Blinken of the United States criticized in the Philippines on August 6 that it is not only the United States that is punished, but the whole world. He stressed that it was an "irresponsible move" for the mainland to cut off the communications channel with the United States.
If mainland Chinese military exercises surrounding Taiwan become a new normal, it will cause great harm to Taiwan. Since Taiwan's oil, coal and gas all rely on import, and their respective stock lasts only three months, one month and less than 10 days, blockade as such will affect Taiwan's power supply. If Taiwan's chip exports are affected as a result, it will cause an international panic.