China Flies 103 Military Planes Toward Taiwan in a New High of Activity the Island Calls Harassment

FILE - A Taiwan national flag flutters near the Taipei 101 building at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, on May 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s military sent 103 warplanes toward Taiwan in a 24-hour period in what the island’s defense ministry said Monday was a daily record in recent times.

The planes were detected between 6 a.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday, the ministry said. As is customary, they turned back before reaching Taiwan.

China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory, has conducted increasingly large military drills in the air and waters around Taiwan as tensions have grown between the two and with the United States. The U.S. is Taiwan’s main supplier of arms and opposes any attempt to change Taiwan’s status by force.

AP23255250379230
FILE – The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) conducts routine underway operations in the Taiwan Strait, on Sept. 9, 2023. (Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jamaal Liddell/U.S. Navy via AP)

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that 40 of the planes crossed the symbolic halfway point between mainland China and the island. It also reported nine naval vessels in the previous 24 hours.

Advertisement

The ministry called the Chinese military action “harassment” that it warned could escalate in the current tense atmosphere. “We urge the Beijing authorities to bear responsibility and immediately stop such kind of destructive military activities,” it said in a statement.”

China last week sent a flotilla of ships including the aircraft carrier Shandong into waters near Taiwan. The drills came shortly after the U.S. and Canada sailed warships through the Taiwan Strait, the waters that separate the island from the mainland.

AP23256122478317
FILE – In this photo released by the Taiwan Ministry of National Defense, Taiwanese navy ship Keelung, foreground, a U.S. made Kidd Class destroyer, monitors the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, background, near the Taiwanese waters in September 2023. (Taiwan Ministry of National Defense via AP)

China also unveiled a plan for an integrated development demonstration zone with Taiwan in China’s nearby Fujian province, trying to entice Taiwan while also warning it in what experts say is China’s long-running carrot and stick approach.

The recent actions may be an attempt to sway Taiwan’s presidential election in January. The ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which leans toward formal independence for the island, is anathema to the Chinese government. China favors opposition candidates who advocate working with the mainland.

Advertisement

Taiwan and China split in 1949 when the communists took control of China during a civil war. The losing Nationalists fled to Taiwan and set up their own government on the island.

The island is self-governing, though only a few foreign nations give it official diplomatic recognition. The U.S. among others has formal ties with China while maintaining a representative office in Taiwan.

___