China Stages Unannounced Pacific Naval Drills Around Taiwan, Officials Call It 'Silent Intimidation'

By Friday, the number of Chinese vessels operating inside the first island chain had fallen to around 70, according to two Taiwan security officials. Earlier in November, a senior Taiwan security official says, the count was far higher: at one point, China's military and coast guard had more than 100 ships massed in the region.

The official, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, described an unannounced exercise across the western Pacific and around Taiwan. It included simulated attacks on other militaries and on cities, Taiwan's among them. Unlike China's previous large drills, this one came with no name and no public announcement. Taipei's characterization is that it amounted to "silent intimidation."

The official said the deployment exceeded "Justice Mission 2025," China's last formally named drills aimed at Taiwan nearly a year ago and one of its largest naval deployments to date. The latest exercise drew on naval forces from China's eastern, northern and southern theatre commands. In the official's reading, that scale suggests Beijing was rehearsing not just a blockade of Taiwan but wider operations across the western Pacific, and trying to knit regional fleets into a single far-seas force. The official also said a Chinese submarine launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Yellow Sea into the Chinese mainland during the drills.

The official offered an analogy: a robber hiding a gun in a coat pocket, muzzle pointed at a bank teller. The teller hands over the money, and no alarm goes off to bring a large police response. A foreign intelligence source read the lack of announcement the same way, as deliberate, letting Beijing apply military pressure while avoiding a diplomatic backlash. That source added that the latter part of the year, when weather is typically calmer, is when China normally conducts drills.

The timing matters. Beijing hosts the APEC leaders' summit in Shenzhen next week, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet for the third time this year. Taiwan also attends APEC. On Thursday, Xi gave a major policy speech on Taiwan that urged peaceful "reunification" and made no mention of using force. China has never renounced force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Taiwan's defence ministry did not address the 100-vessel figure directly, instead pointing to comments this week from minister Wellington Koo, who said China was conducting "area denial" drills in the western Pacific involving an aircraft carrier and other naval formations. China has said the carrier is on "routine" exercises not directed at any country. China's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Taiwan National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu posted an update on X late Thursday. Though vessel numbers had dropped, he wrote, the groups of the Northern, Eastern and Southern Theater Commands plus the Liaoning carrier strike group remained in waters east of the Philippines. He added that Chinese air force activity near Taiwan also remained high.

The Global Times, a widely read state-backed paper, weighed in Friday. If Taiwan's ruling party keeps "seeking 'independence by relying on external forces or military means,'" it wrote, dragging Taiwan's residents onto its "war chariot," they will inevitably face a "harsh reckoning."

The central figures here come from anonymous Taiwanese officials, so they are one side's account. What to watch next is whether the Trump-Xi meeting in Shenzhen changes Beijing's military posture around Taiwan.