Taiwan drills: PLA sends in extra troops to back up Eastern Theatre Command
- PLA brings in air force personnel and anti-submarine aircraft from neighbouring theatre commands for military exercises
- Troops expected to be rotated through to work with Eastern Theatre Command for ‘Taiwan contingency’, analyst says
State broadcaster CCTV released footage showing Russian-made Ka-28 anti-sub helicopters taking part in the air and naval joint operation.
“It’s essential for air force squadrons in the Southern and Northern theatre commands, as well as warships overseeing the Yellow Sea and South China Sea in the North and East fleets, to work together with the Eastern Theatre Command in the event of a Taiwan contingency,” said Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, said.
“A possible war over Taiwan is a complicated and comprehensive operation of A2/AD [anti-access and area-denial], requiring the air force and warships from the three theatre commands to share different roles in their tasks to stop foreign military interventions from the south and north.”
Andrei Chang, editor-in-chief of Canada-based Kanwa Asian Defence, said Beijing applied similar tactics in the aftermath of its “counter-attack war” with Vietnam in 1979, with People’s Liberation Army troops from what were then eight military commands taking turns being deployed to mountain borders in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces for its long “attrition fight” until 1989.
Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan’s Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, said the PLA’s previous training indicated its pilots no longer found the sky and waters around Taiwan a “strange space”.
“Early reports showed even pilots from the Liaoning air force base under the Northern Theatre Command were flying to Shuimen Air Base in Fujian province, which is opposite Taiwan,” Lu said, referring to a CCTV report in March last year.
