French national strategy report highlights China's threats to Taiwan

Paris, July 15 (CNA) France's latest national strategic report has highlighted China's repeated military exercises around Taiwan and asserted that Beijing's escalating pressure on Taipei has created unease in the region.

The 2025 National Strategic Review released Monday said the growing sophistication and intensity of China's military exercises around Taiwan and its continued pursuit of a fait accompli strategy in the South China Sea reflect Beijing's ambitions to become more assertive in the region.

"In 2024 and 2025, repeated Chinese military maneuvers around Taiwan on an unprecedented scale marked a clear acceleration in the strengthening of China's military capabilities," the report said.

The unsteadiness of American policy under President Donald Trump has only accentuated the threat, the report suggested.

"The regional situation is particularly dangerous and volatile in a context marked by uncertainty over the security guarantees provided by the United States to its Asian allies and partners," the report said.

To ensure its ambitions will proceed, the report said, China is exploiting unprecedented hybrid actions such as cyber operations and technological predation, in particular in defense technologies such as quantum, artificial intelligence and space technologies.

It has also continued to expand its nuclear arsenal development, according to the report.

China is the only permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and signatory to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons that has not declared a moratorium on the production of fissile material, the report said.

Fissile material can undergo nuclear fission when struck by a neutron of low energy.

"Beijing is thus positioning itself to have a thousand nuclear warheads by 2030 and 1,500 by 2035," the report said.

"At the same time, China has continued to develop its ballistic capabilities and its strategic signaling mainly toward Taiwan and the United States," the report said, citing the 310 ballistic missiles tested in 2024 and the firing of an intercontinental ballistic missile with a claimed range of 12,000 kilometers in the Pacific Ocean.

While the strategic review listed Russia as a main threat to France and Europeans, the report said China is also eyeing French overseas territories, with an emphasis on New Caledonia due to its strategic location and nickel resources.

The report also analyzed Taiwan's economic importance, saying strategic dependencies now require France to anticipate global economic risks in any potential conflict, as in the case of Taiwan, which is described as "a key link in the semiconductor supply chain."

The report was published at a time when French President Emmanuel Macron has confirmed an additional 6.5 billion euros (US$7.60 billion) in military spending to increase the defense budget to 64 billion euros by 2027, two years ahead of schedule.