China carried out a large military exercise across the western Pacific and around Taiwan in early November without announcing it in advance, in what officials in Taipei have described as a campaign of silent intimidation aimed at pressuring Taiwan and other governments before major international meetings.

A senior Taiwan security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said China's military and coast guard had at one point massed more than 100 vessels in the region. The drills included simulated attacks on other militaries and on cities, including Taiwan's, the official said.

The deployment was larger than Justice Mission 2025, China's last formally named exercise aimed at Taiwan nearly a year ago, and one of the largest Chinese naval deployments to date, according to the official.

Pressure ahead of APEC summit

China regards democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has increased military pressure on the island over the past five years, drawing condemnation from Taipei and raising concern in Western capitals about the risk of conflict.

Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a major policy speech on Taiwan on Thursday, urging peaceful reunification while making no mention of the use of force. During the latest drills, a Chinese submarine also launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Yellow Sea into the Chinese mainland, the Taiwan official said.

Describing the exercise, the official said it was a silent exercise and, in effect, silent intimidation, comparing it to a robber hiding a gun in a coat pocket, with the muzzle pointed at a bank teller: frightening enough to secure compliance without setting off an alarm and bringing a large police response.

China's defence ministry did not respond to a request for comment. Taiwan's defence ministry pointed to comments made by minister Wellington Koo this week, in which he said China was carrying out area denial drills in the western Pacific involving an aircraft carrier and other naval formations.

Carrier group still operating east of Philippines

China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, has said the carrier is on routine exercises that are not directed at any country.

Beijing is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders' summit in Shenzhen next week, where US President Donald Trump and Xi are expected to meet for the third time this year. Taiwan also attends APEC.

A foreign intelligence source said the drills without a name appeared deliberate, allowing Beijing to apply military pressure while avoiding a diplomatic backlash. The source added that the latter part of the year, when the weather is typically calmer, is when China normally carries out such drills.

The exercise involved coordinated naval forces from China's eastern, northern and southern theatre commands, a scale that suggested Beijing was rehearsing not only a Taiwan blockade scenario but broader operations across the western Pacific, the Taiwan official said. That also pointed to China's effort to integrate its regional fleets into a single far-seas operational force, the official added.

The scale of the deployment has decreased this week, with around 70 vessels operating within the first island chain on Friday, according to two Taiwan security officials. Taiwan National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu posted details of the latest deployments on X late on Thursday, saying that while the number of vessels had decreased, the groups of the northern, eastern and southern theatre commands, along with the Liaoning carrier strike group, remained operating in waters east of the Philippines. He added that Chinese air force activity also remained high near Taiwan.

China's state-backed Global Times newspaper said on Friday that if Taiwan's ruling party persisted in seeking independence by relying on external forces or military means, and in dragging the residents of Taiwan onto its war chariot, it would inevitably face a harsh reckoning.