Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said on Thursday it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the island in 24 hours, a record for this year, a day after it said Beijing was conducting exercises in nearby waters.
China – which maintains a near-daily military presence around Taiwan – claims the self-ruled island as its own and has said it will never shy away from using force to bring it under its control.
Thursday’s record incident came a day after Taipei spotted Chinese aircraft around the island that it said were heading to the western Pacific for exercises with the PLA aircraft carrier Shandong.
The Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday that “as of 6 a.m. today (2200 GMT on Wednesday), the activity of 66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN ships had been detected around Taiwan,” adding that the ministry had “taken action accordingly.”
56 Chinese aircraft crossed the sensitive median line dividing the Taiwan Strait – a narrow 180-kilometer (110-mile) waterway that separates the island from China.
Images it released showed some of the planes came within 33 nautical miles (61 kilometers) of the southern tip of Taiwan.
The previous record this year was in May, when Beijing sent 62 military aircraft and 27 naval ships around Taiwan.
The incident occurred amid war drills launched by Beijing shortly after the swearing-in of Taiwan’s President Lai Ching-te, whom China considers a “dangerous separatist”.
Military expert Su Tzu-yun said China’s latest show of force was a response to recent political developments, including Washington’s new ambassador to Taiwan expressing support for Taipei during a meeting with Lai on Wednesday.
“Beijing exerts pressure on Taiwan to express its displeasure over the support it receives,” said Su, of Taiwan’s National Defense and Security Research Institute.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo said on Wednesday that the Shandong did not pass through the “Bashi Channel,” an area at the southern tip of Taiwan that Chinese ships typically travel through to head to the Pacific Ocean.
Instead, it “moved further south towards the western Pacific through the Balintang Channel”, he said, referring to the waterway just north of the Philippines’ Babuyan Islands – about 250 kilometres south of Bashi.
Neighbouring Japan confirmed on Tuesday that four PLA navy vessels – including the Shandong – were sailing 520 kilometres southeast of Miyako Island.
The Philippines military public relations chief said he had received reports of China-Russia exercises in the Philippine Sea but did not comment directly about Shandong.
‘Restricted Waters’
China has stepped up political and military pressure around Taiwan in recent years, sending a record-breaking number of jets, drones and ships while ramping up rhetoric calling “unification” “inevitable.”
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian reiterated on Thursday that “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China”.
“The determination and resolve of the Chinese people to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity are unwavering,” he said during a regular press briefing.
The largest number of aircraft ever seen around Taiwan was last September, when Beijing sent 103 warplanes and aircraft.
Experts call this a “grey zone strategy,” which falls short of overt combat actions but serves to tire out the island’s military.
Lai has repeatedly proposed talks with China, but has been largely rebuffed.
Besides the display of military might, China has also increased the deployment of coast guard ships around Taiwan’s remote islands this year.
Taipei’s coast guard said four Chinese coast guard ships “entered (Taiwan’s) waters” at 7 a.m. on Thursday, adding that the ships left two hours later.
Then at 10 a.m., the four ships “once again arrived at several locations in the restricted waters of Kinmen, and our patrol boats immediately proceeded to conduct surveillance”, and they left around noon.
“So far this year, there have been 31 intrusions into the waters under our control,” he said.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
