Taiwan said this Thursday that it detected 68 Chinese warplanes and 10 ships around the island, after denouncing this week that Beijing carries out air and maritime training in the Western Pacific.
Beijing considers Taiwan part of its territory and has intensified military and political pressure on the island since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president and came to power in Tapei in 2016.
The number of warplane flights around the island has increased markedly since Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the US House of Representatives, visited the island last year.
“68 PLA aircraft and 10 PLAN ships were detected” between Wednesday and Thursday morning, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement, using these acronyms in reference to China’s army and navy.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense reported the day before, Wednesday, that 35 Chinese fighter jets were located around the island and that some aircraft headed to the Western Pacific to carry out maritime and aerial training alongside the aircraft carrier “Shandong.”
The ships, a group of fighters and drones, were detected since Wednesday morning, according to the Tapei authorities.
The “Shandong”, one of the two operational aircraft carriers of the Chinese fleet, was detected on Monday about 60 nautical miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Taiwan sailing towards the Western Pacific, according to Taipei.
Japan’s Defense Ministry also said Wednesday that its navy detected six ships in addition to the “Shandong” advancing about 650 kilometers (400 miles) south of the Japanese island of Miyakojima, east of Taiwan.
They also pointed out that they captured planes and helicopters that landed and took off from “Shandong.”
Gray zone
Taipei warned that China is intensifying activities in a “gray zone” around the island and accused Beijing of trying to increase regional tensions and pressure on this territory, while avoiding an open conflict.
Taipei authorities said Monday they discovered 39 military aircraft, plus a Chinese aircraft carrier, near the island, just after a U.S. destroyer and a Canadian frigate transited the Taiwan Strait over the weekend.
According to Taiwan, 22 of the detected planes crossed the median line of the Formosa Strait, an unofficial border separating the island from mainland China. Incursions beyond this demarcation are rare.
Beijing has not issued any official comment on a drill in the Western Pacific.
However, the Eastern Command of the Chinese army, in charge of organizing the exercises near Taiwan, reported on Wednesday that an “aviation unit” had “recently” conducted training within a radius of “thousands of kilometers”, without mentioning Taiwan.
A Chinese military spokesman said on Saturday that the troops are on “permanent high alert” after the transit of the US destroyer “USS Ralph Johnson” and the Canadian frigate “NCSM Ottawa” through the strait.
The US Navy stated that the passage of both ships “demonstrates the commitment of the United States, its allies and its partners to a free and open Indo-Pacific region.”
