Xi Jinping visit highlights PLA Rocket Force’s key role in Taiwan strategy

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to a PLA Rocket Force unit last Thursday highlights the key role the force might play in trying to deter the US from getting involved in a conflict in the Taiwan Strait, military analysts said. Last week, Xi inspected a People’s Liberation Army brigade stationed in the southeastern province of Anhui, according to state news agency Xinhua. It was the first reported visit to a Rocket Force unit since 2016 and footage of the visit showed a number of nuclear-capable missiles that commentators said could be used to target warships or military bases. The visit came just three days after the Joint Sword-2024B military drill, which involved air, ground and naval forces as well as the Rocket Force. The exercises came days after a speech by Taiwan’s leader William Lai Ching-te when he said Beijing had no authority to represent the island. A day after that drill, Xi visited Dongshan county, an island in Fujian province that sits opposite Taiwan. “The Rocket Force’s measures are meant to signal to the US that the PLA’s capabilities are constantly improving, whether in nuclear or conventional missile technology, and that both weapons and tactics are continuously being upgraded,” Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor. He said the force could be key to winning a war in the Taiwan Strait and to “deterring external forces such as the US from intervening in China’s internal affairs, particularly regarding Taiwan”. Footage of Xi’s visit to the Anhui base from state broadcaster CCTV showed Xi watching a training exercise in which troops got rocket units into a launch-ready condition. Liang Guoliang, a Hong Kong-based military commentator, said the missiles in question were DF-26s, an intermediate-range ballistic missile known as the “aircraft carrier killer” or “Guam express” because of its ability to reach the US territory. Song said that these missiles are not likely to be used against Taiwanese forces but rather to target the US military. Liang said the footage showed up to 20 units, which was “unprecedented in any previous on-screen report”. He said that it would have been “unthinkable” in the early days of the Rocket Force’s predecessor the Second Artillery Corps, when a brigade might only have been equipped with a single ballistic missile. The unit became the Rocket Force in 2015 as part of an wider military overhaul. Liang also said the report highlights the significant increase in the combat capabilities of Rocket Force brigades, whose “mobility and survivability are now exceptionally high” and have one of the “highest levels of technological sophistication in the world”. DF-26 missiles can rapidly switch between conventional and nuclear warheads and have advanced guidance systems that allow for mid-flight trajectory adjustments. This means they can be used to strike both slow-moving naval targets and fixed ground targets up to 4,500km (3,000 miles) away, according to state media reports. Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, said: “If deterrence fails, China would use long-range precision strikes to deny access and movement within the western Pacific. The DF-26 and DF-21D missiles are central to this approach.” Davis said the missiles could be used to target US military bases in Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and Guam and possibly northern Australia. The DF-21D is an earlier medium-range ballistic missile that can be used to target warships. Davis added that Xi’s visit highlights China’s military readiness amid rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait. He also said Beijing’s strategy is to pressure Taiwan into unification, but this is “highly unlikely to succeed” because most Taiwanese prefer the status quo. “Xi must realise this is the reality, and so he is using the strategy of ‘normalising’ [Taiwan Strait] exercises to reduce the time for transition from an exercise to an actual operation, such as either a blockade or an invasion,” Davis said. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China and has not renounced the use of force to reunify it with the mainland. While most countries, including the United States, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent state, Washington opposes any use of force to take back the self-governed island. Though the operational base and unit Xi visited were not identified, it is probably Base 61, one of six PLA bases responsible for missile launches, said Liang. According to the US military’s Air University, the base is primarily focused on Taiwan. Song said that if the US intervenes, a conflict in the Taiwan Strait would expand beyond the immediate region and this means the Rocket Force – which he described as the “backbone” of the PLA’s strategic nuclear deterrent – must be on full readiness. “Upgrading weapons systems takes time, so the Rocket Force must maximise the fullest potential of existing equipment and employ new tactics to win future military conflicts,” he said.

Xi Jinping visit highlights PLA Rocket Force’s key role in Taiwan strategy

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Footage of a tour of a base featured nuclear-capable weapons that are key to Beijing’s plans to deter US intervention in any conflict

Footage of a tour of a base featured nuclear-capable weapons that are key to Beijing’s plans to deter US intervention in any conflict