Chinese: Taiwan’s defence ministry said Thursday it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the area in a 24-hour windows, a record-high this time, a day after it said Beijing was conducting exercises in local waters.
China, which maintains a quasi-daily military appearance around Taiwan, claims that it controls the island and that it is a part of its own province. It has stated that it will never resort to using push to bring Taiwan under its control.
The report on Thursday comes a time after Taipei discovered Chinese aircraft flying toward the western Pacific, where it claimed it was using the PLA aircraft carrier Shandong for activities.
“66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 am ( 2200 GMT Wednesday ) today”, the defence ministry said in Thursday’s statement, adding it has “responded accordingly”.
The Taiwan Strait, a constricting 180-kilometer ( 110-mile ) waterway that separates China from mainland China, is divided by a thin median line that separates the Chinese aircraft from the mainland.
An illustration it released showed some of the aircraft came within 33 nautical miles (61 kilometres ) of Taiwan’s southern tip.
The previous record for the year was set in May when Beijing toured Taiwan with 62 defense aircraft and 27 maritime vessels.
That occurred in the middle of Beijing’s war game, which came shortly after Taiwan’s election of Lai Ching-te, who Beijing views as a “dangerous secessionist”.
Military professional Su Tzu-yun claimed that China’s most new display of force was a response to recent political developments, such as Washington’s de facto embassy to Taiwan meet with and expressing assistance for Taipei at a meeting with Lai on Wednesday.
Taiwan is subject to “beijing’s force” over the support it receives, according to Su from Taiwan’s Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
Defense Minister Wellington Koo noted on Wednesday that the Shandong had never passed” through the Bashi Channel,” the region off Taiwan’s southern edge where Chinese ships usually pass en route to the Pacific Ocean.
Instead, he claimed, “it continued further west through the Balintang Channel towards the Western Pacific,” making mention of a waterway only north of Babuyan Island, which is located about 250 kilometers south of Bashi.
On Tuesday, neighboring Japan revealed that four PLA military warships, including the Shandong, were sailing 520 kilometers east of Miyako area.
The Philippines ‘ military public affairs key stated that they had received information of a China-Russia training taking place in the Philippine Sea, but they did not directly address the issue of the Shandong.
Restricted lakes
China has in recent years ramped up political and military forces around Taiwan, sending in record-breaking figures of jets, drones and submarines while upping the language of “unification” being “inevitable”.
Lin Jian, official of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reiterated Thursday that” Taiwan is an intrinsic part of China’s country”.
He stated during a typical press briefing that” the dedication and determination of the Chinese citizens to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity are unwavering.”
Last September, Beijing sent in 103 aircraft and aircraft, which was the largest amount always seen around Taiwan.
Specialists call these “grey area tactics”, which stop short of illegal acts of war but assist to fuel the island’s defense.
Lai has consistently attempted to talk about it with China, but he has generally received rebuffed.
This time, China has increasingly sent coast guard ships around Taiwan’s remote islands, in addition to deploying a military display of force.
On Thursday, four Chinese coast guard ships” sailed into ( Taiwan’s ) waters” at 7 am, Taipei’s coast guard said, adding that the vessels left after two hours.
Then at 10 am, the four boats “once again sailed in Kinmen’s limited waters at various points, and our police boats immediately moved forwards to track”, and they left around lunchtime.
” The incursions into waters controlled by our part have so far this year reached 31 days,” they said.
