China is carrying out 'area denial' drills in the Western Pacific involving one of its aircraft carriers and other naval formations, Taiwan's Defence Minister Wellington Koo said on Tuesday — Taipei's first official characterisation of the large Chinese deployment that its security chief disclosed last week. 'China has indeed conducted area denial drills in the Western Pacific with the Liaoning carrier group and other naval training formations,' Koo told reporters at parliament, according to Reuters.

Source: Reuters

Anti-access/area denial, known as A2AD, means keeping an outside force from intervening in a conflict — in the Taiwan context, stopping US or other allied forces from coming to Taipei's aid should Beijing attack. China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, regularly sends warplanes and warships into the skies and waters around the island, and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control, though it says it would prefer 'peaceful reunification'. Taiwan's government rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying only the Taiwanese people can decide their future.

Source: Reuters

From sightings to an official name

Last week, Taiwan National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu posted on his X account details of the deployments of more than 100 Chinese naval and Coast Guard ships operating off Taiwan, in the South China Sea and into the Pacific, and Taiwan's defence ministry reported a large rise in the number of Chinese air force aircraft around Taiwan — though China has not formally declared any drills. A joint report by the American Enterprise Institute and the Institute for the Study of War, released on November 6, described more than 100 PLA Navy and China Coast Guard vessels in the western Pacific, with four task forces drawn from three PLA theater commands operating between Taiwan and Guam and the Liaoning carrier strike group having moved into the western Pacific via the Basilan Strait from October 23. Koo's statement is the first time Taiwan's defence minister has publicly named the purpose of that activity: area denial.

Source: ISW/AEI joint report, via Wisevoter

Awaaz Punjab reported the ISW/AEI assessment of the 100-vessel deployment on Monday. Read: China-Taiwan blockade rehearsal — ISW counts 100 vessels

Beijing's answer so far

China's defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Koo's remarks, Reuters said. The ministry said last month that the Liaoning carrier's training in the western Pacific was an annual routine to test long-range, open-ocean combat capabilities and was not directed at any particular country.

Source: Reuters

The drills come ahead of both the APEC summit in Shenzhen next week, where US President Donald Trump is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping again, and Taiwan's local elections at the end of this month. Koo said the military was keeping a close watch on what China was up to. 'We believe that this kind of military deterrence is intended to undermine peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region,' he said. 'We will use joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance means and exchange intelligence with allies to continuously monitor these activities and respond appropriately.'

Source: Reuters, via Devdiscourse