Taiwan says China naval deployment is largest in decades

China has deployed the largest number of naval ships to regional waters around Taiwan since the mid-1990s, the Defense Ministry in Taipei said Tuesday, amid growing speculation that Beijing has launched another round of war games.

While Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced Tuesday morning that it had spotted a total of 21 Chinese Navy ships and coast guard vessels around the island, media reports citing senior Taiwanese security officials said close to 90 Chinese Navy and coast guard ships had been detected in a broader stretch of waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Japan, Taiwan and the Philippines.

A ministry spokesman said the deployments were the largest since China held war games around Taiwan ahead of the island's 1996 presidential elections. Military vessels had reportedly been dispatched from China's northern, eastern and southern theater commands.

"PLA naval deployments in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, and South China Sea have already created security risk and regional instability," the ministry said. "For our national defense, regardless of Beijing's drill announcements, (Taiwan's armed forces) will monitor the situation and respond accordingly."

The ministry also said earlier that it had detected 47 Chinese military aircraft around the democratic island over the last 24 hours to 6 a.m. — the highest for a single day tally since Beijing last held large-scale drills around Taiwan in October.

Taipei said Monday that it had put its forces on high alert after Chinese warships and coast guard vessels were spotted near the island and after the Chinese military restricted airspace off China's east coast.

Beijing has yet to make any formal announcement about military exercises.

Asked Tuesday about the reports, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning referred questions to "the relevant department in China," reiterating that Beijing "will resolutely defend its national sovereignty and territorial integrity."

The moves come on the heels of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s first overseas tour since taking office. The trip, which wrapped up Friday, saw Lai visit a handful of the island’s dwindling number of Pacific allies while also taking him to the U.S. state of Hawaii for what Taipei deemed a “transit,” and later to the American territory of Guam.

Both Hawaii and Guam are home to sprawling U.S. military outposts.

China has reacted angrily to the tour, with the country’s Foreign Ministry warning Friday that “attempts to solicit U.S. support for ‘Taiwan independence’ or use the Taiwan question to contain China will lead nowhere.”

China in October held its Joint Sword-2024B exercises around Taiwan, concluding the drills with a strong hint that more shows of force were to come.

"Every provocation by Taiwan independence forces will be met with a further step by the PLA until the Taiwan question is completely resolved," Defense Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian said at the time, using the acronym for China's People's Liberation Army.

Beijing said those joint drills involved warships, coast guard vessels and aircraft closing in on the island from multiple directions, and included warplanes carrying live missiles for mock assaults on key targets, while Chinese forces also practiced blockading key ports.

In May, days after Lai was sworn into office, China held the first iteration of the drills, Joint Sword-2024A.

China views democratic Taiwan as its “core of core issues” and regards the island as a renegade province that must be unified with the mainland, by force if necessary. (Japan Times)