Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said it had detected 26 aircraft and nine Chinese warships around the island today, a day after Beijing announced the end of its main military maneuvers.
China mobilized “military planes this morning and crossed the median line of the north, center and south”, said the Ministry of Defense, on the day that began a week-long visit of Canadian deputies to the territory.
China considers Taiwan part of its territory, where the nationalists fled after losing the Chinese civil war in 1949 to the communists. One of Beijing’s priorities is to ensure reunification, by force if necessary.
The show of strength comes after the President of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen, met on Wednesday in California with the leader of the House of Representatives of the United States, Kevin McCarthy, an initiative to which Beijing has promised to respond.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said it had detected 12 warships and 91 planes on the last day of the operation of the military exercises that started on Saturday.
The Taiwanese President condemned the military exercises on Monday, saying that China was using the relationship between Taipei and Washington as an “excuse (…), creating instability in Taiwan and the region”.
“Although China’s military exercise is over, our army and our national security team will continue to remain at their posts and defend the country,” Tsai said in a post on the social network Facebook.
