Taiwan detects 66 Chinese military planes around island, daily record

(Taipei) Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Thursday it had detected 66 Chinese military aircraft around the island in a 24-hour period, a record number since the beginning of the year and a day after military exercises in surrounding waters.

China claims democratically-ruled Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to take control of the territory.

Beijing has stepped up pressure on Taipei in recent years. Thursday’s new record comes after the Taiwanese government said a day earlier that Chinese jets were heading to the Western Pacific for exercises with the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandongas part of maritime and air training.

“Sixty-six People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and seven PLA Navy ships operating around Taiwan were detected as of 6 a.m. (6 p.m. [heure de l’Est] (Wednesday) today,” the ministry said in a statement.

Of these, 56 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which bisects the 180-kilometer-wide strait between the island and mainland China.

Taipei “reacted accordingly”

The Taiwanese ministry said it had “monitored the situation and responded accordingly.” It released a document showing that some planes came within 33 nautical miles (61 kilometers) of Taiwan’s southern tip.

The previous record for the year was in May, when Beijing sent 62 military aircraft and 27 warships around Taiwan.

This happened after the inauguration of the new Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te, whom Beijing considers a “dangerous separatist”. China then organized military exercises around the island as a “punishment”.

“Expressing one’s discontent”

Military expert Su Tzu-yun said China’s latest show of force was a response to recent political developments, including Mr Lai’s meeting on Wednesday with the new director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei.

“Beijing is pressuring Taiwan to express its dissatisfaction with the support it receives,” said Mr. Su, of Taiwan’s National Defense and Security Research Institute.

Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Wednesday that the aircraft carrier “did not pass through the Bashi Channel,” a waterway off the southern tip of Taiwan that Chinese ships usually transit on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

“It went further south, into the Balintang Channel, towards the western Pacific,” he added, referring to a shipping lane north of Babuyan Island in the Philippines, about 250 kilometers south of Bashi.

On Tuesday, Japan’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said that four Chinese navy ships, including the aircraft carrier Shandongwere sailing at sea 520 kilometers southeast of Miyako Island.

The aircraft carrier Shandong was “observed landing and taking off fighter jets and helicopters on board,” he said.

In the Philippines, a military spokesman said he had received intelligence about Russian-Chinese exercises in the Philippine Sea, without commenting on the aircraft carrier.

Tensions between Manila and Beijing have risen following a series of clashes in the disputed South China Sea.