China has carried out a large, unannounced military exercise across the western Pacific and around Taiwan, in what officials in Taipei have described as a campaign of “silent intimidation” aimed at pressuring the island and other governments before a round of major international meetings.
A senior Taiwan security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said China’s military and coast guard had at one point massed more than 100 vessels in the region early this month. The drills included simulated attacks on other militaries and on cities including Taiwan’s, the official said.
The deployment was larger than “Justice Mission 2025”, China’s last formally named exercise targeting Taiwan nearly a year ago, and one of the largest Chinese naval deployments to date, according to the official. The scale has eased this week, with around 70 vessels operating within the first island chain on Friday, two Taiwan security officials said.
The exercise also involved a Chinese submarine launching an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Yellow Sea into the Chinese mainland, the senior official said. Coordinated naval forces from China’s eastern, northern and southern theatre commands took part, a scale that suggested Beijing was rehearsing not only a Taiwan blockade scenario but broader operations across the western Pacific, and working to integrate its regional fleets into a single far-seas force.
Taiwan’s defence ministry pointed to comments this week by minister Wellington Koo, who said China was carrying out “area denial” drills in the western Pacific involving an aircraft carrier and other naval formations. Taiwan National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu said late on Thursday that the northern, eastern and southern theatre command groups plus the Liaoning carrier strike group remained operating in waters east of the Philippines, with Chinese air force activity near Taiwan still high.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has stepped up its military pressure over the past five years, drawing condemnation from Taipei and heightening concern in Western capitals about the potential for conflict. Beijing has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, though it has described the carrier as being on “routine” exercises not directed at any country. China’s defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.
President Xi Jinping gave a major policy speech about Taiwan on Thursday, urging peaceful “reunification” while making no mention of using force. The drills come just before Beijing hosts the APEC leaders’ summit in Shenzhen next week, where US President Donald Trump and Mr Xi are expected to meet for the third time this year. Taiwan also attends APEC.
A foreign intelligence source said the “silent drills without a name” appeared deliberate, allowing Beijing to apply military pressure while avoiding a diplomatic backlash. China’s state-backed Global Times said on Friday that if Taiwan’s ruling party persists in “seeking ‘independence by relying on external forces or military means'”, it will “inevitably face a harsh reckoning”.
Note: key details of the drills, including the scale of the deployment and the missile launch, rest on accounts from anonymous Taiwan security officials and have not been independently verified; China has not publicly confirmed the exercise.
Sources: Reuters — “China stages unannounced Pacific drills in ‘silent intimidation’ of Taiwan, officials say” (https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-stages-unannounced-pacific-drills-silent-intimidation-taiwan-officials-say-2026-11-13/)
