'Taiwan Contingency': China Moves Troops From Across The Country To Fujian For Drills

China is reportedly bringing in People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) personnel from around the country to support and participate in the drills led by the Eastern Theatre Command against Taiwan. This comes as the PLA ramped up military pressure on the self-governing island in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's Taiwan visit.

The PLAAF's rare move was highlighted by regional experts and local media which noticed the presence of several anti-submarine aircraft from the Southern Theatre Command in the drills conducted Monday. Though the PLA drill was slated to end Sunday, China had announced fresh drills by the Eastern Theatre Command around Taiwan.

Footages aired by state broadcaster CCTV showed Russian-made Ka-28 anti-sub helicopters from the Southern Theatre Command taking part in the air and naval joint operation, reported South China Morning Post.

While the Eastern Theatre Command's ground force headquarters is located in Fujian, the Southern Theatre Command is based in Guangdong province, which is 549 miles away.

According to analysts, the troop rotation aims to prepare the forces for a Taiwan contingency. "It's essential for air force squadrons in the Southern and Northern Theatre Commands, as well as warships overseeing the Yellow Sea and the South China Sea in the North and East fleets, to work together with the Eastern Theatre Command in the event of a Taiwan contingency," said Song Zhongping, a former PLA instructor, told the news outlet.

The joint effort is significant due to the complications involved in taking over Taiwan. "A possible war over Taiwan is a complicated and comprehensive operation of A2/AD [anti-access and area-denial], requiring the air force and warships from the three theatre commands to share different roles in their tasks to stop foreign military interventions from the south and north," he added.

Lu Li-shih, a former instructor at Taiwan's Naval Academy in Kaohsiung, thinks the PLA's previous training indicated its pilots no longer found the sky and waters around Taiwan a "strange space." "Early reports showed even pilots from the Liaoning air force base under the Northern Theatre Command were flying to Shuimen Air Base in Fujian province, which is opposite Taiwan," Lu told South China Morning Post.

However, this isn't the first time China is bringing together personnel from other theatre commands. Beijing had carried out a similar tactic in its war with Vietnam in 1979. Then, China brought together forces from all its eight military regions to fight Vietnam. The troops from Kunming Military Region, Chengdu Military Region, Wuhan Military Region and Guangzhou Military Region led the war and members of their troops take turns at mountain borders in Guangxi and Yunnan provinces for its long "attrition fight" until 1989. All these military regions were later streamlined into the existing five theatres of command in 2016.