The U.S. and Taiwan Begin Large Scale Military Exercises in the Pacific

What Happened?

Both the United States and Taiwan kicked off large scale military exercises this week. According to U.S. officials, the American exercise was a ‘first in a generation’ Department-Level Exercise which took place across the U.S. and Indo-Pacific region. It involved 12,000 personnel from the Air Force and Space Force, along with more than 350 aircraft.

Meanwhile, Taiwan launched its own annual exercise known as Han Kuang, but this year the number of forces involved was the largest ever according to Taiwanese officials. This year over 22,000 members of Taiwan’s military will take part in the exercise.

Why it Matters

The larger objectives of both the U.S. and Taiwanese military exercises was to prepare for a potential invasion of Taiwan by China and to send a message of readiness to repel such an invasion to China’s leaders in Beijing. A secondary goal was to reassure the Taiwanese public that their military was prepared to fight and win if China decided to launch an invasion.

On the U.S. side, the immediate purpose of the exercise was to demonstrate readiness to carry out combat missions while under attack. ‘Our ability to fight and prevail in any contested environment depends on our team's ability to generate aircraft sorties while under attack and often far away from our main operating bases,’ said General Kevin Schneider, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Air Forces. A contested environment means one in which enemy forces are actively launching attacks against you. 

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Taiwan’s immediate goal was to focus on combating China's increasing grey zone warfare tactics against Taiwan which have seen Beijing's fighter jets and ships repeatedly intrude in airspace and waters. Grey zone refers to the air defense identification zone around Taiwan, which is an area Taiwan claims as its own but parts of it include international airspace, meaning it is considered a grey area. 

China has increased its defense spending to a reported $250 billion dollars, though the actual amount may be considerably higher. Much of that new spending has gone to modernize and expand China’s naval and air forces, which give China the capability to project power off its coast, which is where Taiwan is located.

Though Taiwan is only about one hundred miles off the coast of China, the sea in between contains some of the most treacherous waters on earth. China has invested billions of dollars in developing air and naval forces capable of reaching Taiwan.

How it Affects You

Tensions between China and the U.S. have increased this year, as have tensions between China and Taiwan. China has conducted its own large-scale exercises to rehearse a potential invasion of Taiwan. It is difficult to tell whether or not China truly intends to invade Taiwan. Such a conflict, if it happened, would immediately become the largest in the world, even surpassing the number of forces involved in the Russia-Ukraine war.