U.S. says China drills look rehearsals

Washington has sharpened its public language on China’s moves near Taiwan, with United States officials describing recent Chinese military activity as practice for a real attack rather than routine drills. (usnews.com) The latest exchange came after Raymond Greene, the top United States representative in Taipei, said on April 12 that China should stop its threats and military pressure and talk directly with Taiwan’s leaders. Greene heads the American Institute in Taiwan, the body that handles unofficial United States ties with the island. (usnews.com) Beijing answered on April 15 through Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua, who said United States claims were a “distortion” of China’s actions and showed “malicious intentions.” Chen repeated Beijing’s position that Taiwan is an internal Chinese matter and warned Washington to handle the issue carefully. (usnews.com) What changed is not the flights or ship movements alone, but the way Washington is describing them. Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of United States Indo-Pacific Command, used the same “rehearsals” language in May 2025, and officials are still using it nearly a year later. (focustaiwan.tw) That wording tracks a broader pattern around Taiwan since August 2022, when China answered then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit with larger and closer military exercises, including missile launches over Taiwan. Analysts at the Center for Strategic and International Studies say those operations helped create a new baseline for more frequent pressure. (chinapower.csis.org) China has kept that pressure up with repeated air and naval activity and new rounds of major exercises, including live-fire drills in late December 2025. The Council on Foreign Relations said China increased military activity around Taiwan in December while also pushing diplomacy elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific. (usnews.com) (cfr.org) Taiwan’s Defense Ministry is still reporting near-daily Chinese activity. On April 16, it said it detected 3 Chinese aircraft sorties, 6 navy ships and 3 official ships around Taiwan, with all 3 aircraft entering parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone. (globalsecurity.org) The air defense identification zone is a buffer area where governments ask approaching aircraft to identify themselves; it is not the same as sovereign airspace. Taiwan’s military says it responds with patrol aircraft, navy ships and coastal missile systems when Chinese forces enter that zone. (globalsecurity.org) Beijing says these operations are lawful and tied to its sovereignty claim over Taiwan, while Taipei says they are coercive and raise the risk of miscalculation. The dispute now is over both the military activity itself and whether the world should treat it as signaling, pressure, or preparation. (usnews.com 1) (usnews.com 2) For now, the numbers around Taiwan remain small enough to look routine on some days and persistent enough to keep the “rehearsal” label alive in Washington. Beijing is rejecting that label outright, and neither side is backing off its public line. (globalsecurity.org) (usnews.com)