TAIPEI – Dozens of Chinese warplanes and 10 navy ships were detected around Taiwan, the authorities in Taipei said on Thursday, after warning that China was conducting air and sea drills in the Western Pacific.

China claims self-ruled Taiwan as its territory, and relations have soured since the island’s independence-leaning President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016.

Beijing has in recent years ratcheted up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan. The number of warplane flights around the island increased dramatically following the August 2022 visit by Mrs Nancy Pelosi, then the US House Speaker.

The Taiwan Defence Ministry said 68 Chinese aircraft and 10 naval vessels were detected near the island between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning.

Taipei had already said some of those planes and warships were heading to an unspecified area of the Western Pacific to “conduct joint sea and air training” with China’s Shandong aircraft carrier.

The Shandong, one of two operational aircraft carriers in the Chinese fleet, was detected on Monday around 110km south-east of Taiwan, heading into the Western Pacific.

Japan’s Defence Ministry said on Wednesday that its navy detected six ships – including frigates, destroyers, one fast combat support ship and the Shandong – sailing through waters some 650km south of Miyako island, east of Taiwan.

It also confirmed that jets and helicopters were detected taking off and landing from the Shandong.

‘Grey zone’

China’s military “has been tasked to develop capabilities to take over Taiwan”, one expert said.

“Those military exercises are aimed at developing and practising those capabilities,” said Ms Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund of the United States, a think-tank in Washington. “We should expect its trend to continue, with growing pressure on Taiwan.”

Dr James Char, a research fellow at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said China’s military activities around Taiwan – particularly aerial incursions into the island’s air defence identification zone – had become a “regular occurrence”.

But the activities were “all, without exception, operations below the threshold of war and occurring outside Taiwanese territorial airspace”.

China has not commented officially on any drills being conducted in the Western Pacific.

‘Equal treatment for Taiwan’

In contrast with the sabre-rattling, Beijing this week dangled the prospect of preferential treatment for people from Taiwan seeking to live, work, study and do business in mainland China.

The series of “opinions” announced by two top Communist Party bodies on Tuesday also urged the coastal city of Xiamen to “speed up” its integration with the Taiwan-administered Kinmen and Matsu islands located a few miles offshore.

At a news conference on Thursday, Mr Pan Xianzhang, vice-director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the party’s Central Committee, said the goal of the policy was to create a “demonstration zone for cross-strait integrated development”.

“The focus is on… taking the lead in implementing equal treatment for Taiwan compatriots and businesses to make Taiwan compatriots fully experience the benefits of integration,” Mr Pan said.

Mr Cong Liang, vice-director of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, said at the same briefing that a high-speed rail line should be built across the Taiwan Strait to achieve “direct infrastructure connectivity” with the mainland.

China conducted military exercises in April to simulate the encirclement of Taiwan after Ms Tsai met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California. At the time, Taiwan detected 71 Chinese warplanes in a 24-hour period, matching the record daily high set in December 2022. AFP