China launched drills around Taiwan on April 1. Based on Chinese media coverage and military propaganda packages, the exercises appear to be the first “major” ones of 2025. Precise numbers have not yet been provided by the Taiwanese defense ministry.
China’s Eastern Theater Command released a statement on Weibo announcing the exercises, which focus on “sea-air combat-readiness patrols, joint seizure of comprehensive superiority, assault on maritime and ground targets, and blockade on key areas and sea lanes.”
A poster released by the Eastern Theater Command on WeChat for the drills superimposed the characters for advance, jin bi (進逼), over an image of Taiwan.
Below that is the phrase “Taiwan independence creates trouble, bringing fire upon itself.”
Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said on X that Chinese navy vessels “led by the aircraft carrier Shandong” had been detected on March 29 and entered Taiwan’s “response zone” on March 31. The “response zone” appears to be the area of Taiwan’s Air Identification Zone that is east of the Median Line.
The carrier strike group was still operating to the southeast of Taiwan on April 1, defense reporter Jaime Ocon quoted Taiwan’s defense minister as saying.
The defense ministry said it detected 19 Chinese ships around Taiwan on March 31. Since 19 vessels would be a huge carrier strike group, it is likely the case that some of the ships were not operating with the aircraft carrier. Unusually, there were no aircraft detected.
Taiwan’s Presidential Office Spokesperson’s X account released a statement linking today’s drills to wider Chinese military activity in the Indo-Pacific, describing them as “blatant military provocations” and “escalatory behavior” that threatened peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan’s main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) released a statement on Facebook urging Beijing to “abandon the use of force and seek peaceful coexistence.” The KMT also called on the Lai administration to “replace confrontation with dialogue and to prioritize conflict prevention over provocation,” saying that “President Lai Ching-te’s (賴清德) recently announced ‘Lai 17 Points [strategies]’ have not only reduced the space for cross-strait dialogue but also intensified tensions in the Taiwan Strait.”
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) condemned China’s actions at a press conference emphasizing that intimidation with force will only disgust and alienate the Taiwanese: “We will not agree with, and we cannot accept, the Chinese Communist Party intimidating Taiwan in this way.”
Huang said the Taiwanese will fight against the ruling Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) autocracy and judicial persecution on their own.
Taiwan Security Monitor, an OSINT group from George Mason University, pointed out on X that in a CCTV interview on April 1, Zhang Chi (張馳), a colonel and professor from China’s People’s Liberation Army National Defense University, said the drills had no name because they are a “new normal” for the Chinese military and the Eastern Theater Command.
The drills include “sea and air combat patrols, seizure of comprehensive control, strikes on sea and land, and containment of key areas,” and are “normalization exercises” to “let the DPP authorities and the separatist forces of ‘Taiwan independence’ regularly feel the firm will and strong ability of the People’s Liberation Army,” Zhang continued.
Taiwan’s Coast Guard said it had “immediately detected Chinese Coast Guard vessels [vessels 14607 and 14517] approaching the waters near Dongyin, Matsu.” Dongyin is Taiwan’s most northerly outlying island and lies very close to the coast of the Chinese mainland. The Taiwanese Coast Guard said it had dispatched patrol boats to “drive away” the intruding ships. It also said it had established a “crisis response center, coordinating naval assets and working closely with the Ministry of National Defense to monitor and counter these threats.”
Zhu Anqing (朱安慶), a spokesperson for the East China Sea Bureau of the China Coast Guard quoted by China’s Eastern Theater Command on WeChat, said Coast Guard vessel formations conducted “law-enforcement patrols in waters surrounding Taiwan island, and carried out drills such as inspection and capture, interception and detention operations against unwarranted vessels.” There is no indication that these drills have yet involved the interdiction of non-Chinese vessels, which would be a significant escalation.
Separately, the Eastern Theater Command released an animated video called “Shell” depicting President Lai as a maggot or “parasite poisoning Taiwan island.”
In the first shot, Lai emerges from the ground near Tainan in the south of Taiwan where he was originally city mayor. The maggots head north, out of a large green area that covers most of Taiwan towards a blue north, where Taipei is situated. This appears to evoke the electoral map of Taiwan, where Lai’s “green” Democratic Progressive Party is traditionally strongest in the south and the “blue” Chinese Nationalist Party opposition in the north.
Around the island of Taiwan are four two-character words:
Prosperity (繁榮), but the characters are covered in faint cracks, suggesting Taiwan looks prosperous on the surface, but that this is shattering. The placement is also interesting. It is situated in the strait, closest to China, possibly suggesting that the PRC is the prosperous one.
Democracy (民主), but the character for civil/people (民) has been flipped, with its back facing outward, perhaps suggesting it’s a betrayed democracy.
Peace (和平), but the characters are collapsing. It’s closest to Lai. His fault?
Freedom (自由), but the characters are distorted one. Maybe the suggestion here is the freedom Taiwan enjoys under the current Lai administration and the DPP is illusory.
Amusingly, if you buy that it is intentional that “prosperity” is closest to China, then “freedom” is furthest away.
Lai is secondly depicted with four arms respectively grasping at “dirty” money, holding golden ingots representing KMT party assets, pushing away KMT generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), and strangling Taiwan People’s Party leader Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), who is currently imprisoned awaiting trial on corruption charges. Behind Ko is Kao An-kuo (高安國), a retired Taiwnese general who has been charged with trying to form an armed group to assist invading Chinese forces. Also in the scene are military purchases, education reform and the DPP’s “Green Terror,” with Lai’s 17 strategies to combat Chinese interference
Finally, Lai as a maggot is shown roasting over a burning Taiwan held in chopsticks. Six Chinese propaganda posters surround him depicting weapons from the Chinese navy, air force and rocket force.
The animation ends with the following poem (translation by Global Times):
“Under false cover, green terror spreads;
With foreign backing, separatists run wild.
One family torn across the Strait;
Democracy reversed; prosperity destroyed.”
Correction: This article originally referred to NDU professor “Zhang Chi” as “Chi” on second mention. That has now been corrected to “Zhang”, his surname.
Leave a Reply