China Announces Swift End to Joint Sword-2024B Exercises Around Taiwan

China says it’s wrapped up its latest round of military drills around Taiwan after a little more than 12 hours.

Transcript

00:00China says it has completed its Joint Sword 2024B exercise as of 6 p.m. Monday.

00:07While it lasted, Taiwan's military says it deployed anti-ship and anti-air missiles as

00:11well as scrambled dozens of aircraft to intercept Chinese aircraft flying around Taiwan.

00:17China announced it would conduct Joint Sword 2024B on Monday at 5 a.m.

00:22Taiwan reported at least 125 Chinese military aircraft operating around the country from

00:28that time until 4 p.m.

00:30Seventeen naval ships were also spotted sailing around Taiwan.

00:34This was one of the largest exercises that China has conducted around Taiwan.

00:39China says these drills practice blockading and controlling key ports and areas in Taiwan

00:44while also practicing how to strike targets on land and at sea.

00:48These drills came just days after Taiwan celebrated its National Day, where President Lai Qingdao

00:52gave a speech saying the Republic of China, which is Taiwan's official name, and the People's

00:57Republic of China are not subordinate to each other.

01:00That statement was seen as very provocative by China as it considers Taiwan as part of

01:04its own territory.

01:05Even though Lai's speech overall is seen as pretty restrained, some say China was still

01:09looking for a pretext to conduct these drills.

01:12Earlier I spoke to one analyst who said that Beijing was always going to react with military

01:16drills.

01:17I think it's really important to note that President Lai's speech was very, he tried

01:22to strike a very even tone and choose words that resembled those of President Tai and

01:29just find a lot of continuity and I think there's a really clear indicator here that

01:35even with that good effort by President Lai, Beijing is just not having it and that's a

01:41really important sign I think for everybody to take.

01:44Taiwan's military says that both the Coast Guard and the Navy worked together to intercept

01:48ships that were sailing around the country.

01:50The military said that groups of Chinese Coast Guard ships were sailing in convoys

01:55around Taiwan's main island and trying to encircle Taiwan.

01:58With the exercises now over and tensions still high between China and Taiwan, it's yet to

02:03be seen whether there will be more joint-sword drills in the future.

02:07Scott Huang and Jaime O'Connor in Taipei for Taiwan Plus.