China's latest military drills near Taiwan show it is serious about being able to cut off the democratically ruled island in a conflict, analysts said, as Beijing said its aircraft carriers could 'shatter' defences from the east.
Customers dine near a giant screen broadcasting news footage of an aircraft taking off from China's Shandong aircraft carrier while taking part in a combat readiness patrol and "Joint Sword" exercises around Taiwan conducted by the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army , at a restaurant in Beijing, China April 10, 2023. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang/File Photo
The carrier's presence there meant China "can shatter Taiwan's so-called eastern shield", Zhao Xiaozhuo, a senior colonel and researcher with People's Liberation Army Academy of Military Sciences, told state news agency Xinhua. But an unfettered, more coordinated attack from the east would mean "the whole situation will turn very unfavourable," he said.Videos of the exercise released by the People's Liberation Army's Eastern Theatre Command showed its vessels and planes came within 24 nautical miles of Taiwan on all sides of the island, which Beijing claims as its own.
Zhang Chi, a senior colonel and assistant professor with National Defence University, told Xinhua that the simulated precision attacks meant that China could eliminate Taiwanese leaders in a "Zhanshou" operation, which translates as "beheaded". In Western military parlance, such attacks are referred to as "decapitation strikes".
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