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\nChina is deploying dozens of ships in its biggest maritime mobilization around Taiwan in years, Taipei said Tuesday, after Beijing voiced fury at President Lai Ching-te\u2019s recent visit to the United States.
Taiwanese forces were on high alert in anticipation of Beijing\u2019s People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) staging war games in response to Lai\u2019s US stopovers and call with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Taiwan\u2019s defense ministry said the number of Chinese ships in the waters around the island exceeded Beijing\u2019s maritime response to then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi\u2019s visit to Taipei in 2022, which was the largest-ever war games.
In those drills, Beijing deployed ballistic missiles, fighter jets and warships in what analysts described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of Taiwan \u2014 and was a display of how far China\u2019s military had come since the last Taiwan Strait crisis in the mid-1990s.
Nearly 90 Chinese naval and coast guard ships were currently in waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines, a senior Taiwanese security official told AFP.
Taiwan\u2019s defense ministry said earlier it had also detected 47 Chinese aircraft near the island in the 24 hours to 6:00 am (2200 GMT).
That was the highest number of aircraft detected in a single day since a record 153 reported on October 15, after China staged major military drills in response to Lai\u2019s National Day speech days earlier.
China \u2014 which regards Taiwan as its territory and has not ruled out using force to bring it under its control \u2014 has held four large-scale military exercises in just over two years, including the drills in response to Pelosi\u2019s visit and two since Lai took office in May.
\u201cIt can indeed be said that the scale of these maritime forces exceeds the four drills since 2022,\u201d defense ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters.
Sun said the latest exercises drew forces from three separate Chinese regional commands, while another defense ministry official said China\u2019s actions were \u201cnot solely directed at Taiwan\u201d.
There has been no public announcement by the PLA or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean, where Taiwan said Chinese ships had been detected.
However, a Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman said Tuesday that China will \u201cresolutely defend\u201d its sovereignty.
The lack of an announcement from Beijing was unusual and, if drills were under way, could be a \u201cdeliberate strategy to sow confusion and exert psychological pressure,\u201d Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, said.
\u201cChina\u2019s current movements resemble what we would see during preparations for real combat, exceeding the scale of previous exercises,\u201d he added.
Taipei-based security analyst J. Michael Cole said the mix of PLA navy vessels and coast guard ships highlighted Beijing\u2019s efforts to \u201cincrease interoperability\u201d between the two.
\u201cSuch efforts also blur the lines between civilian and military components and thus complicate Taiwan\u2019s ability to respond proportionally,\u201d Cole told AFP.
Beijing has asserted its claims over contested territories in the region far more boldly in recent years, as its military strength has grown.
The escalating actions \u2014 over islands in the East China Sea claimed by Japan, self-ruled Taiwan, and reefs and islands in the South China Sea that are also claimed by Southeast Asian nations \u2014 have come as Beijing\u2019s rivals have drawn closer to the United States.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that China was the \u201conly country in the world that has the intent and, increasingly, the capability to change the rules-based international order.\u201d
\u201cWe want to see this region, this area remain open to freedom of navigation and the ability to fly the skies and international airways whenever we want to,\u201d Austin said in a speech aboard the USS George Washington, an aircraft carrier stationed in Japan.
\u201cWe\u2019re going to continue to work with our allies and partners to ensure that we can do just that.\u201d
The United States is Taiwan\u2019s most important backer and biggest supplier of arms, but has long maintained \u201cstrategic ambiguity\u201d when it comes to putting boots on the ground to defend the island.
Lai said Friday he was \u201cconfident\u201d of deeper cooperation with the next Donald Trump administration, a day after he spoke with US Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson that angered China.
China\u2019s foreign ministry warned Taiwan on Friday that \u201cseeking independence with the help of the United States will inevitably hit a wall\u201d, and called on Washington to \u201ccease meddling in Taiwan-related affairs\u201d.
The dispute between Taiwan and China goes back to 1949 when Chiang Kai-shek\u2019s nationalist forces were defeated by Mao Zedong\u2019s communist fighters and fled to the island.<\/p>\n