China said on Wednesday it takes “necessary measures” to defend the country’s sovereignty and will not tolerate “separatist” activities, as Taiwan reported another rise in Chinese warplanes around the island and called on Beijing to halt provocations.
Beijing’s military has yet to comment on the military activity and has not confirmed it is carrying out exercises.
A senior Taiwanese official said they believed the surge in activity was meant to send a political message to the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
A security diplomat in the region briefed on the matter said the scale and size of the ongoing Chinese operations, including the manpower being dispatched, was “unheard of” in recent years.
“We have not seen anything like this in at least the past few years,” they said citing their country’s assessment while declining to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.
China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, had been expected to launch drills to express its anger at President Lai Ching-te’s tour of the Pacific that ended on Friday and included stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam.
“We will absolutely not let things go unchecked. We take necessary measures to resolutely defend the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Zhu Fenglian, a spokesperson for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office said when asked about the increased military activities.
China’s government was “highly vigilant to the trend of separatist Taiwan forces colluding with external forces”, she said at a regular news briefing in Beijing.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said on Wednesday it had detected 53 military aircraft operating around the island over the past 24 hours, as well as 11 navy vessels and eight “official” ships, which refers to vessels from ostensibly civilian agencies such as the Coast Guard.
Lai and his government reject Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
On Tuesday, Taipei’s defence ministry said China was deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than in previous Chinese war games.
However, a U.S. military official has said that China’s naval deployments in the East China Sea and South China Sea were elevated but consistent with other large exercises in the past.
Team Bharatshakti
(With inputs from Reuters)
