China's new tactic against Taiwan: drills 'that dare not speak their name'

13/12/2024 16:10

Beijing has unveiled a new tactic on Taiwan, the democratic island it claims as its own, officials and experts say: large-scale drills with no fanfare to normalise a heightened military presence and let the U.S. know that China can act whenever it wants.



For four days this week, Taiwan went on alert in response to what it said was China's largest massing of naval forces in three decades around Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas.



China's military said nothing until Friday when it quoted ancient Chinese tactician Sun Tzu's Art of War, a favourite of the communist republic's founder Mao Zedong.



"Just as water retains no constant shape, so in warfare there are no constant conditions," the defence ministry said, a cryptic statement that neither confirmed nor denied that Beijing had been holding military exercises.



The initial silence was a departure from China's past practice of unleashing a massive propaganda push to coincide with war games around the island.



A senior Taiwan security official this week termed China's activities as "drills that dare not speak their name".