According to information from Taiwan’s defense ministry, China is making one of its biggest incursions so far into the seas and skies around the island.
It said that 71 Chinese air force planes, including fighter jets and drones, had flown into Taiwan’s so-called air defense identification zone.
Taiwan has its own government, but China sees it as a province that broke away and wants to get it back.
In the past few months, things have been getting steadily worse between the two sides.
In August, Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the US House of Representatives, went to the island. She was the most important US politician to go there in 25 years. This made Beijing very angry.
China’s response to that visit was to hold the biggest military exercises it had ever done in the seas around Taiwan and to stop some trade with the island.
Joseph Wu, who was the foreign minister of Taiwan at the time, said that what China did was very dangerous. China has never said that it wouldn’t use force to take control of Taiwan.
Monday, Taiwan’s defense ministry said that 43 Chinese planes had flown over the “median line,” which is an unofficial line that separates the two sides inside the air defense zone.
China said on Sunday that it had done “strike drills” around Taiwan in response to what it called provocation from Taiwan and the US.
When it comes to Taiwan, Washington has always had to walk a diplomatic tightrope.
On the one hand, it sticks to the One-China policy, which is one of the most important parts of its relationship with Beijing. Under this policy, the US recognizes that there is only one Chinese government and has formal ties with Beijing instead of Taiwan.
But it also keeps close ties with Taiwan and sells it weapons under the Taiwan Relations Act, which says that the US must give Taiwan the tools it needs to protect itself.
Japan
According to Japanese officials, China also held a series of military drills last Friday near Japan’s southern Okinawa island in the Pacific Ocean.
Japan’s Joint Staff says that on December 21, the Chinese navy’s Liaoning aircraft carrier, along with two destroyers and a frigate, sailed about 560 kilometers (348 miles) east of Kitadaito Island, which is off the east coast of Okinawa. The island is home to a military base. On December 22, the ships also went about 120 kilometers (74 miles) east of Okinotorishima, which is further southeast.
Then, on Friday, Japan’s defense ministry said that about 180 fighter jets and helicopters that were based on the Liaoning aircraft carrier took off and landed on the ship.
The Ministry of Defense and Self-Defense Forces of Japan sent out two escort ships to gather information, give warnings, and keep an eye on the situation, the ministry said.
Tensions between China and Japan have also been rising steadily, with Beijing increasing its naval and air forces in areas close to Japan. China also claims the Senkaku Islands, which are a chain of uninhabited islands in the East China Sea that are ruled by Japan.
China has been sending ships near the islands, which it calls the Diaoyus, and sending up warplanes almost every day when Chinese planes get close to its airspace.
Japan released a new national security plan earlier this month. This plan is the country’s biggest military buildup since World War II. It will double the country’s defense spending and go against its pacifist constitution as China, North Korea, and Russia become more of a threat.