Taiwan’s defense ministry said it detected 26 aircraft and nine Chinese warships around the island on Tuesday, a day after Beijing announced the end of its main military maneuvers.
China “mobilized military aircraft this morning and crossed the center line north, center and south,” the defense ministry said on the day a week-long visit by Canadian delegates to the area began.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory, to which the Nationalists fled after the loss of 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 Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen met with United States House of Representatives Leader Kevin McCarthy in California on Wednesday, an initiative Beijing has promised to respond to.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said it had discovered 12 warships and 91 aircraft on the last day of the military exercise that began Saturday.
Taiwan’s president on Monday condemned the military exercises, saying China used the relationship between Taipei and Washington as an “excuse (…), creating instability in Taiwan and the region.”
“While China’s military exercise is over, our military and national security team will remain in place and continue to defend the country,” Tsai said in a Facebook post.
Source: DN
