Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Thursday (Jul 11) it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the island in a 24-hour window, a record-high 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 part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to bring it under its 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.
“66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6am today,” the defence ministry said in Thursday’s statement, adding it has “responded accordingly”.
Fifty-six of the Chinese aircraft crossed the sensitive median line bisecting the Taiwan Strait – a narrow 180km waterway separating the island from China.
An illustration it released showed some of the aircraft came within 61km of Taiwan’s southern tip.
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 Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing regards as a “dangerous separatist”.
Military expert Su Tzu-yun said China’s latest show of force was a reaction to recent political developments, including Washington’s new de facto ambassador to Taiwan meeting with and expressing support for Taipei during a meeting with Lai on Wednesday.
“Beijing puts pressure on Taiwan in order to express its displeasure at the support it enjoys,” said Su of Taiwan’s Institute for National Defence and Security Research.
Defence minister Wellington Koo on Wednesday noted that the Shandong had not passed “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 Balintang Channel towards the Western Pacific,” he said, referring to a waterway just north of the Philippines’ Babuyan Island – about 250km south of Bashi.
Neighbouring Japan on Tuesday confirmed that four PLA navy vessels – including the Shandong – were sailing 520km southeast of Miyako island.