Qualla: 2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan

2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan: Introduction

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 總統府, CC BY 2.0. Eleven missiles. That was China's answer to a congressional visit. On 2 August 2022, United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taipei, becoming the highest-ranking American official to visit Taiwan in twenty-five years. Within hours, the People's Republic of China announced four days of live-fire military exercises in seven zones encircling the island. What followed was the most intense military confrontation in the Taiwan Strait since the Third Crisis of 1995-96 - an event that analysts would come to call the beginning of the Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis. The exercises lasted from 4 to 11 August, involving naval deployments, air sorties, and ballistic missile launches that sent shockwaves through the waters around one of the world's most critical shipping corridors.

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2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan: The Gathering Storm

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit w:ja:防卫省, CC BY-SA 4.0. The visit did not happen in a vacuum. Since 2020, PLA aircraft had been entering Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone on a near-daily basis - 250 days in a twelve-month span between September 2020 and 2021. During China's 2021 National Day celebrations, a record 148 aircraft ...

Image: w:ja:防卫省 | CC BY-SA 4.0

2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan: Seven Zones of Fire

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 防卫省, CC BY-SA 4.0. The PRC designated seven exercise zones that effectively encircled Taiwan, cutting across the island's busiest international shipping lanes and aviation routes. Taiwan's government called it a blockade. China fired eleven missiles into the surrounding waters, at least several of ...

Image: 防卫省 | CC BY-SA 4.0

2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan: Responses Measured and Otherwise

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 防卫省, CC BY 4.0. The United States walked a careful line. A US carrier strike group operated in the Philippine Sea southeast of Taiwan while the PLA exercises raged, maintaining presence without direct confrontation. Washington cancelled a planned Minuteman III missile test to avoid further escal...

Image: 防卫省 | CC BY 4.0

2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan: A New Normal

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 中国新闻社, CC BY 3.0. China's Eastern Theater Command announced the exercises' conclusion on 10 August, declaring it had 'successfully completed various tasks.' But it also announced regular future patrols 'in the direction of the Taiwan Strait' - signaling that the exercises had established a new bas...

Image: 中国新闻社 | CC BY 3.0

2022 Chinese Military Exercises Around Taiwan: The Strait Under Pressure

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 總統府, CC BY 2.0. Japanese Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi called for the exercises to stop, warning of their 'serious impact on the peace and stability of the region.' North Korea backed China's 'righteous stand.' Russia declared that Pelosi's visit had provoked the tensions. The G7 issued a c...

Image: 總統府 | CC BY 2.0