"Attack with words and force, attack "independence" with poison" Beijing's intensive military exercises against Taiwan. How far is the CCP from the "reunification dream"?

Beijing - After the inauguration of Taiwan's new president, Lai Ching-te, Beijing launched an unprecedented military exercise and information warfare against Taiwan. Some Chinese government-affiliated scholars said that this was the most direct warning to Lai Ching-te. Obviously, Lai Ching-te's "two-state theory" has completely angered the Chinese Communist Party, which has brought about a new round of offensive against Taiwan.

Different from the past practice of pre-announcing the no-fly zone, China's official media Xinhua News Agency suddenly announced at 7:00 a.m. on May 23 that the Chinese military conducted a joint exercise of the army, navy, air force and rocket force called "Joint Sword-2024A" around Taiwan from May 23 to 24 on Thursday (May 23). The military exercise area includes the Taiwan Strait, northern, southern and eastern Taiwan, and the outer areas of Kinmen Island, Matsu Island, Wuqiu Island and Dongyin Island under Taiwan's administration.

China's official Xinhua News Agency released the news in the name of Li Xi, a navy colonel who was the spokesperson for the Eastern Theater Command, pointing out that this was also a powerful punishment for the separatist forces seeking "independence" and a serious warning to external forces for interference and provocation. At the same time, Chen Binhua, a spokesperson for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council of China, also said that this military exercise was a "resolute punishment" for Lai Qingde's inaugural speech.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin stated at a regular press conference on the 23rd that conducting joint exercises and training around the Taiwan Island, safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and issuing serious warnings to external forces for interference and provocation are fully in line with international law and international practice, and are completely legitimate and necessary.

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te inspected the military for the first time as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces . The accompanying Defense Minister, civilian-born Gu Lizhong, said that a response center would be set up immediately to respond appropriately.

Taiwan's presidential office spokesperson Kuo Ya-hui said in a video on the 23rd that the current international community has a high consensus on maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and the Indo-Pacific region. It is regrettable to see China's unilateral military provocations threatening Taiwan's democracy and freedom and the regional peace and stability. Maintaining regional peace and stability is the common responsibility and goal of both sides of the Taiwan Strait. In the face of external challenges and threats, they will continue to defend democracy.

This time, the Chinese military dispatched a large number of military forces to conduct exercises around the island of Taiwan. In addition to Beijing's hope to bring huge political pressure and social stability pressure to Taiwan, it is also a big shock to Western investors.

In an interview with the BBC, Zhuang Jiaying, associate professor at the Department of Political Science at the National University of Singapore, said that the summer season is usually the peak season for military exercises, and things that should be paid attention to in this exercise include the scale of the exercise and how much psychological pressure it can cause to Taiwan.

Beijing has not only taken measures such as military exercises against Taiwan, but also tried to deter Taiwan from the internal environment. Through existing propaganda methods, it has reviewed and screened topics related to Taiwan in social software such as "Little Red Book", "Tik Tok", and "Zhihu" commonly used by young Taiwanese people, creating an atmosphere of "cognitive warfare".

However, under the influence of multiple public opinions, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Weighted Index (TAIEX) rose 0.26% by the close of Thursday.

Of course, Taiwan is also taking the same measures to wage psychological warfare against the mainland, trying to suppress the other side by using the similarities and differences between the two social systems.

Regional geopolitical conflicts also provide many Western investors with the latest warning for the Asia-Pacific market.

Using poison to attack "independence" with "cognitive warfare and military exercises"

The Chinese Communist Army's military exercises against Taiwan attempt to create a "tense and angry" mood among the Taiwanese people, making full use of the Taiwanese people's psychological cognition to carry out so-called "infiltration" activities.

Taiwan, through some foreign media and other channels, has created a perception among mainland Chinese that the root of the problem lies in the worsening economy and increasing unemployment, thus generating "resistance" sentiment.

Prior to this, Chinese government-sponsored think tanks believed that Beijing would show undisguised hostility towards Lai Ching-te. Some Chinese business think tanks that do public opinion analysis for the government said in their internal guidelines that they expected that after Lai Ching-te was elected and took office, Beijing would definitely increase military threats against Taiwan to divert public attention from dealing with China's internal economic crisis and social contradictions.

Some "shadow media" that often criticize China believe that a military attack on Taiwan would cause some chaos to Chinese society, while the pressure to maintain social stability would gradually weaken. However, as the Communist Party of China continues to strengthen internal discipline and carry out external party discipline education and rectification activities, this possibility seems to be getting smaller and smaller.

At the same time, this month is also a religious month for Chinese Catholics, and it also coincides with the upcoming 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Incident, which has increased the pressure on China's grassroots stability maintenance unprecedentedly.

After Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te took office, some “ Taiwanese anchors ” emerged on several short video social platforms in China.

These "Taiwanese anchors" are all young people from Taiwan, and a small number are Taiwanese students in mainland China. These "Taiwanese anchors" conducted live broadcasts in multiple time periods and on multiple platforms on the evenings of the 21st to 23rd. Some short video accounts that had never posted any sensitive topics involving Taiwan or cross-strait relations also appeared frequently in the past few days.

Zhang Chengyun (pseudonym), a researcher at the Institute of Contemporary China of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "We want to use the media and information to let the people of Taiwan know their situation, and at the same time hope to use public opinion to put pressure on Lai Ching-te."

In addition, many Chinese media professionals and official scholars have expressed support for Beijing's military exercise and defended its legitimacy.

Hu Xijin, former editor-in-chief of the Chinese nationalist tabloid Global Times, believes that the military exercises have had the effect of deterring Lai Ching-te.

He wrote on Weibo: "In Lao Hu's opinion, this exercise is equivalent to the newly-appointed Lai Ching-te administration being caught by the mainland's giant military hand and stuffed into a birdcage for being arrogant and shouting nonsense."

Jin Canrong, vice dean of the School of International Relations at Renmin University of China, also said in a video that if Beijing increases its threats against Taiwan in the future, the responsibility should be borne by the Taiwanese people.

In the past 20 years, Taiwan has experienced several elections of varying sizes, with the exception of the 1995 Taiwan Strait Missile Crisis , when Beijing conducted military exercises to deter Taiwan with force in order to prevent the late former Taiwanese President Lee Teng-hui from being re-elected in the 1996 Republic of China presidential election. This move triggered a crisis. The Second Artillery Corps of the Chinese People's Liberation Army and the Nanjing Military Region launched missiles into the waters off Taiwan and conducted amphibious landing combat exercises, while the United States urgently mobilized two aircraft carrier battle groups into the Taiwan Strait. The late former Chinese Communist Party leader Jiang Zemin personally visited the site to watch the exercises.

But after Lai Ching-te was elected this time, the fifth-generation leaders of the Chinese Communist Party no longer seemed to give Taiwan more opportunities.

This large-scale exercise also gave the new Taiwanese government a serious warning not to underestimate Beijing's actual influence. The Chinese military's "island encirclement" approach is an attempt to show the international community and the Taiwanese military that they can blockade at any time. At the same time, such siege tactics are also very common in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

There is also a view that Beijing’s large-scale military exercises against Taiwan are an attempt to help the Taiwanese military recognize more quickly where its shortcomings lie.

Some mainland Chinese people left comments on official media videos and WeChat public accounts, praising the military exercise for effectively intimidating "Taiwan independence" (Taipei). Some comments said that China announced the purpose of this military exercise "even if they die, they (Taiwan independence) must know who will kill them."

In Taiwan, many netizens said on social media that "the effectiveness of the PLA's military exercises is decreasing." Articles such as "What would you do if the Afghan Communists attacked you?" were also widely circulated in Taiwan and mainland China.