66 Chinese aircraft around Taiwan in single day

TAIPEI—Taiwan’s defense ministry said Thursday it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the island in a 24-hour window, a record-high this year, a day after Beijing reportedly conducted military exercises in nearby waters.

China claims self-ruled democratic Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring it under Beijing’s control.

Thursday’s record comes a day after Taipei spotted Chinese aircraft around the island that it said were headed to the western Pacific for exercises with the PLA aircraft carrier Shandong.

“Sixty-six PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. (2200 GMT Wednesday) today,” the defense ministry said in Thursday’s statement.

Fifty-six of the aircraft crossed the sensitive median line bisecting the Taiwan Strait—a narrow 180-kilometer waterway separating the island from China.

The ministry added it had “monitored the situation and responded accordingly.”

Speaking to military officers in Taipei, President Lai Ching-te said he will continue to strengthen the island’s defenses.

‘Gray zone’ tactics

“The Chinese Communists’ threat to regional stability continues to rise, and its gray zone intrusions into the Taiwan Strait and surrounding areas are also increasing day by day, which are a common challenge to global democracy,” he said, according to a statement from his office.

Taiwan says China has been using “gray zone” tactics that stop short of actual combat to test and pressure Taiwanese forces, including regular coast guard patrols near the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands that sit within view of China.

The year’s previous record was in May, when Beijing sent 62 military aircraft and 27 naval vessels around Taiwan.

That occurred in the middle of war games Beijing launched on the heels of the inauguration of Lai, who Beijing regards as a “dangerous separatist.”

Exercise

Taiwan defense minister Wellington Koo on Wednesday said the Shandong “did not pass through the Bashi Channel,” the area off Taiwan’s southern tip where Chinese ships typically transit en route to the Pacific Ocean.

Instead, it “went further south through the Balingtang Channel towards the Western Pacific,” he said, referring to a waterway just north of the Philippines’ Babuyan Island—about 250 kilometers south of Bashi.

Neighboring Japan on Tuesday confirmed that four PLA navy vessels—including the Shandong—were sailing 520 km southeast of Miyako island.

“Fighter aircraft and helicopters” had been seen taking off from and landing on the Shandong,” it said.

The Philippines’ military public affairs chief said they had received reports of a China-Russia exercise taking place in the Philippine Sea though he did not comment about the Shandong directly.

Tensions between Manila and Beijing have ramped up following a series of escalating confrontations over the hotly disputed South China Sea. —AFP