China has "slowly, but surely" increased its military presence around Taiwan in an attempt to force the island "to make mistakes," according to Taiwan's naval commander.
Adm. Tang Hua, in an interview with The Economist, said China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has deployed more air and naval craft around Taiwan.
"The PLA is using an 'anaconda strategy' to squeeze the island," Hua told the outlet.
"They give you extreme pressure, pressure, pressure. They're trying to exhaust you."
The admiral added that the PLA is "ready to blockade Taiwan at any time they want."
The Economist provided data that backed up Hua's assertion. The data included:
- PLA air incursions across the de facto border in the middle of the Taiwan Strait has increased from 36 in January to 193 in August.
- The number of PLA ships operating around Taiwan has doubled from 142 in January to 282 in August.
Tang said Chinese vessels are patrolling 24 nautical miles from the island's coast and for several days at a time.
As PLA forces move closer, Taiwan is focused on avoiding confrontation.
"The PLA is trying to force Taiwan to make mistakes," said Tang, who added the communists were seeking "excuses" to trigger a blockade.
Taiwan's military leaders this year have issued new rules of engagement that define ethical and legal use of force in self-defense.
"We restrain our guys, not to provoke or escalate," Tang told The Economist.
Until August 2022, the PLA had operated mostly in Taiwan's south and west. The island's rugged east coast — where aircraft hangars exist underneath mountains — was deemed safer and harder to reach from China.
However, after former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi angered China by visiting Taiwan, the PLA conducted a mock blockade near Taiwan's east and now have regular air and see patrols in the area.
China's military has twice as many frigates and 10 times as many destroyers as Taiwan, which often must deploy 25%-50% of its combat vessels just to match China's patrols, according to Cheng-kun Ma and Tristan Tan, a pair of Taiwanese defense researchers.
On Saturday, Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said it is "impossible" for the People's Republic of China to become Taiwan's motherland because Taiwan has older political roots.
Lai, who took office in May, is condemned by mainland China as a "separatist." He rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims, saying that the island is a country called the Republic of China, which traces its origins back to the 1911 revolution that overthrew the last imperial dynasty.
Reuters contributed to this story.