Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 26 Chinese aircraft and nine warships around the island on Tuesday, a day after Beijing announced the end of its major military drills.
China mobilized “military aircraft this morning and crossed the north, center and south median lines,” the Defense Ministry said, on the day that began a week-long visit by Canadian lawmakers to the territory.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory, where the nationalists fled after losing the Chinese civil war to the communists in 1949. One of Beijing’s priorities is to ensure reunification, by force if necessary.
The show of force comes after the president of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, met this Wednesday in California with the leader of the United States House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, an initiative to which Beijing has committed to Give answer.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it had detected 12 warships and 91 aircraft on the last day of the military drill operation that began on Saturday.
The Taiwanese president condemned the military exercises on Monday, saying China was using the Taipei-Washington relationship as an “excuse…, creating instability in Taiwan and the region.”
“Although China’s military exercise has ended, our military and national security team will remain at their posts and defend the country,” Tsai said in a Facebook post.
Source: TSF
