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China Sent a Record 111 Warplanes Across Key Line With Taiwan

(Bloomberg)

(Bloomberg) -- Taiwan reported that China flew a record 111 warplanes across a US-drawn boundary in the strait separating the sides, underscoring the intensity of military pressure Beijing is placing on the democratically run government.

The aircraft then entered sensitive zones west, southwest and east of the main island, the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei said in a statement. The activity was seen from 5 a.m. Monday to 6 a.m. Tuesday, it added — roughly coinciding with China holding large-scale military exercises around Taiwan.

The Taiwanese military monitored the warplanes and tasked aircraft, naval vessels and missile systems with responding, the ministry said. The number of Chinese planes nearly doubled the previous record of 56 in July, when the archipelago’s new president, Lai Ching-te, was considering stopping in the US during a trip abroad.    

The figures come as China’s military vowed to apply military pressure on Taiwan every time it is “provoked” until “the Taiwan issue is completely resolved.” On Monday, the People’s Liberation Army held maneuvers around Taiwan’s main island and some smaller outposts that it said were intended as a warning to Lai’s government to cease “separatist acts.”

“We just want to use language that the ‘Taiwan independence’ elements can understand to make them understand that a sharp sword hangs high over their heads,” Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said late Monday after the drills ended, according to a social media post by the ministry.

China said the exercises involved army, navy, air and missile forces, and that they practiced a “blockade on key ports and areas.” Taiwan also reported a surge in cyberattacks.

On Tuesday, Taiwan Premier Cho Jung-tai said that if China held more exercises, “we’ll all be prepared and continue to be prepared. We have done this in the past and will do so in the future.”

The State Department said that the US was “seriously concerned” about the PLA’s maneuvers. President Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to defend the semiconductor hub that sits astride a major shipping lane from any attack by China. Beijing has said it must bring Taiwan under its control someday, by force if necessary.

Japan scrambled fighters near Yonaguni, an island some 110 km (68 miles) east of Taiwan, in response to the military drills and also told Beijing its was concerned about the situation, deputy chief cabinet secretary Kazuhiko Aoki told reporters in Tokyo.

China’s military has been working to diminish the importance of the median line in the strait. The US drew that boundary in 1954 during a period of cross-strait tensions, and for decades the Chinese military largely stayed on its side.

The PLA now regularly sends flights across the line, straining Taiwan’s smaller military. 

The PLA’s military maneuvers drills came after Lai said in a speech last week that he’d work to “resist annexation or encroachment upon our sovereignty” and reiterated that neither side of the strait was “subordinate to each other” — views that angered China. The exercises were the second China has held since the inauguration in May of Lai, who Beijing deeply distrusts because it views him as pushing to formalize independence. 

Wu, the Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman, made his remarks in response to a question from a reporter about Lai’s speech on Taiwan’s National Day. Underscoring China’s disdain for the new president, Wu also said of Lai that he “and his ilk have forgotten their ancestors” and provoked “hostility and confrontation.”

“We will never promise to give up the use of force and will never leave the slightest room for ‘Taiwan independence’,” Wu added.

--With assistance from Sarah Hilton.

(Updates with Japan scrambling planes, and more details and context.)

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