Taiwan's Defense Ministry says 56 Chinese aircraft have crossed the sensitive median line as Beijing conducts military exercises.
Taiwan has said it is monitoring China's military movements after spotting the largest number of Chinese warplanes near the island in a 24-hour period so far this year, as Beijing holds drills coinciding with a NATO summit in Washington, DC.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday that “66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels were detected operating around Taiwan as of 6 a.m. [22:00 GMT Wednesday] today”.
Of those, 56 planes crossed the sensitive median line dividing the narrow 180-kilometer (112-mile) waterway separating the self-ruled island from mainland China, according to the ministry.
Taiwan's Defense Ministry also released two photographs of a Chinese J-16 fighter jet and a nuclear-capable H-6 bomber, which it said were taken recently.
“The military has detailed knowledge of activities in the seas and waters around the Taiwan Strait, including the Chinese communists' planes and ships,” ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said.
On Wednesday, Taiwanese officials announced that the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong had passed near the Philippines on its way to military exercises in the Pacific.
The Philippine military said it had received reports of a Chinese-Russian exercise taking place in the Philippine Sea without direct reference to the Shandong.
Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory, has complained of a sharp increase in Chinese military activity in recent years as Beijing seeks to pressure the island's Democratic Progressive Party government, which has advocated strengthening Taiwanese identity and forging closer ties with the international community.
Beijing has branded Taiwanese President William Lai Ching-te a “dangerous separatist” and said the island should be “reunified” with mainland China by force if necessary.
In a statement released Wednesday, NATO leaders said China has acted as a “decisive facilitator” of Russia’s war on Ukraine and poses systemic challenges to Europe and its security.
A spokesman for the Chinese mission to the European Union accused NATO of “exaggerating the so-called Chinese threat” and said the statement was full of “obvious lies and defamation.”
