China has released footage of its troops carrying out a “no-notice” rocket launch as part of an ongoing effort by state media to showcase the People’s Liberation Army’s rapid-response capabilities.
State broadcaster CCTV on Monday released a brief video showing the exercise in mountainous terrain and said it had been carried out with no advance notice given to the troops involved.
No other details were provided.
The footage – which is believed to show a missile from the Dongfeng (“East Wind”) stable – was released on the same day that a major Communist Party meeting known as the fifth plenum began in Beijing.
It marked the second time this month that footage from an unannounced drill had been made public.
The previous video, released on October 11, showed the launch of DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles, which are capable of reaching the US territory of Guam – a key part of the second island chain that stands between China and the Pacific.
CCTV said that drill had been carried out during the National Day holiday early this month in the country’s southeast – a possible reference to Fujian, the mainland province closest to Taiwan.
The footage also featured the slogan: “Sharpening blades across multi-domains, safeguarding national reunification.”
The October 11 broadcast came a day after Taiwan’s Double Tenth celebrations, when the island’s leader William Lai Ching-te gave a speech that Beijing said had escalated cross-strait tensions.
The publicity surrounding these drills also coincides with Keen Sword, an ongoing joint exercise conducted by the United States and Japan focused on a possible Taiwan crisis.
Beijing regards Taiwan as part of China and has never renounced the use of force to achieve reunification. The US and Japan, in common with most countries, do not recognise the self-ruled island as independent, but Washington is opposed to any attempt to take Taiwan by force and is committed to supplying it with weapons.
On Sunday, an article in China’s military mouthpiece the PLA Daily called on the armed forces to boost their rapid-response capabilities to prepare for “major ‘Taiwan independence’ incidents”.
This would be one of the three statutory triggers under the 2005 Anti-Secession Law, which authorises the use of “non-peaceful means and other necessary measures” to protect national sovereignty and territorial integrity.
“The military must be fully prepared to deal with various complex situations and be able to handle them quickly and effectively if something happens,” the article said.
“We strive to the best of our ability to achieve peaceful reunification, however, as military personnel, we must remain prepared for war,” the PLA Daily added.
“For those diehard ‘Taiwan independence’ elements and external forces with ulterior motives, we must issue warnings and impose punishments in ways that they can clearly understand and that will make them afraid.”
The article was published as mainland China marked “Taiwan Restoration Day”.
October 25 was established as an official memorial date last year by Beijing to commemorate the end of Japanese colonial rule over the island. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
