GLOBAL DEFENSE's video: China s military drills missile launches around Taiwan look like a rehearsal for seizing the island

In the wake of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial trip to Taiwan, the Chinese military is staging massive, provocative live-fire exercises in close proximity to the island which has included launching missiles into nearby waters. Experts on the region say that the joint air and sea exercises not only signal China's anger over Pelosi's visit, but also serve as a kind of practice for what would be needed to take Taiwan by force. China regards Taiwan, a self-governing democracy, as a breakaway part of its own territory. The Chinese government has said it wants to achieve the "reunification" of China and Taiwan peacefully, but it has not excluded the possibility of achieving this goal through military force. The drills being held by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) are intended to serve multiple purposes, including to "rehearse for a blockade or other major military operations against Taiwan (including preventing third countries from intervening)," Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies told. The exercises are also meant to "punish Taiwan and undermine Taiwan's morale and support for President Tsai" while signaling to Washington, Taipei, and the international community "how willing China is to use military force over Taiwan," Lin added, going on to say that Beijing also hopes to discourage other countries from supporting Taiwan or sending government officials to visit in the future. The immediate purposes of the drills are to present "a show of force to respond to Pelosi's visit" and "to exhibit [China's] displeasure" and "presumably to deter the US or other countries from undertaking visits like this in the future," Lyle Morris, a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation who focuses on China's foreign policy and military. But another purpose of the drills is to show the Chinese military's "readiness to respond to Taiwan provocations" that China regards as breaking from the status quo, which "naturally support PLA capabilities to blockade or invade Taiwan in the future," added Morris, who also served as the Country Director for China in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2019 to 2021. Oriana Skylar Mastro, an expert on the Chinese military and fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, told The New York Times the Chinese drills are "not just about the messaging." "Under the guise of signaling, they're trying to basically test their ability to conduct complex maneuvers that are necessary for an amphibious assault on Taiwan," Mastro said.