PLA drills are becoming routineBy Gahon Chiang 江佳紘Whenever the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) stages major military drills around Taiwan, public discussion tends to fixate on “this time”: How close did they come? The core threat comes from a system that treats military spectacles as a routine instrument of governance. Put differently, coercive operations around Taiwan and nearby waters increasingly resemble a standing budget line, not sporadic surges. Within this governance logic, drills serve purposes beyond training. The root of long-term uncertainty in the western Pacific stems from an authoritarian system that treats military intimidation as a routine method of governance.

Source: Taipei Times January 03, 2026 18:00 UTC