\n<\/p>\n
China launched military drills around Taiwan on Monday, sending jets and warships in a \u201cwarning\u201d to \u201cseparatists\u201d on the self-ruled island.<\/p>\n
It is the latest show of force by Beijing, which sees Taiwan as its territory and vows to take it back by force if necessary.<\/p>\n
AFP takes a look at China\u2019s increasing efforts at military intimidation around Taiwan in recent years:<\/p>\n
Warplane incursions<\/strong> Taipei said in April 2023 it had detected the long-range TB-001 Chinese combat drone and 37 other Chinese aircraft circling Taiwan.<\/p>\n Local media said it was the first time Taiwan\u2019s defence ministry had reported a Chinese military aircraft circling the island from one end of the Taiwan Strait\u2019s median line, which China does not recognise, to the other.<\/p>\n Beijing now deploys planes and naval vessels around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, with Taipei authorities detecting as many as 43 Chinese military aircraft around the island over a 24-hour period last month.<\/p>\n \u2013 Pelosi backlash \u2013<\/p>\n Beijing unleashed its largest military exercises around Taiwan in August 2022, after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi enraged China\u2019s Communist Party government by visiting the island.<\/p>\n The drills ran for at least five days and involved what Beijing called a \u201cconventional missile firepower assault\u201d in waters to the east of Taiwan.<\/p>\n They were followed by more drills that month after another delegation of US lawmakers visited Taipei.<\/p>\n A record 446 warplanes entered Taiwan\u2019s air defence zone that month, according to Taipei\u2019s defence ministry.<\/p>\n Just a month later Taiwanese forces shot down a drone for the first time on tiny Shiyu Islet, which lies between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan\u2019s Kinmen islands.<\/p>\n China went on to deploy 71 warplanes in military exercises around Christmas that year, which the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army (PLA) said were a \u201cstrike drill\u201d responding to unspecified \u201cprovocations\u201d and \u201ccollusion\u201d between the United States and Taiwan.<\/p>\n Simulated blockade<\/strong> The war games saw Beijing simulate targeted strikes on Taiwan and encirclement of the island, including \u201csealing\u201d it off. Chinese state media reported dozens of planes had practised an \u201caerial blockade\u201d.<\/p>\n One of China\u2019s two aircraft carriers, the Shandong, also participated in the exercises.<\/p>\n The drills were followed by a rocket launch from northwest China that Taiwan authorities said had sent debris falling into the sea north of the island.<\/p>\n In August, a stopover in the United States by then-vice president Lai Ching-te drew Beijing\u2019s ire, with the PLA holding new war games intended to serve as a \u201cstern warning to the collusion of \u2018Taiwan independence separatists\u2019 with foreign elements\u201d.<\/p>\n \u2018Strong punishment\u2019 <\/strong> Taipei initially described the objects as weather balloons but later blasted them as threats to aviation safety.<\/p>\n A record eight Chinese balloons were detected over a 24-hour period in February, with five flying directly over Taiwan.<\/p>\n Tsai\u2019s right-hand man Lai was elected president in January in a contest overshadowed by fears of military threats from Beijing.<\/p>\n Following his inauguration in May, Beijing announced two days of drills as a \u201cstrong punishment for the separatist acts of \u2018Taiwan independence\u2019 forces\u201d.<\/p>\n And in July, Taipei said Beijing had sent 66 Chinese military aircraft in a 24-hour window \u2014 the record so far this year.<\/p>\n And this time it is a National Day speech by Lai in which he vowed to \u201cresist annexation\u201d that has sparked Beijing\u2019s ire, which has sent fighter jets and warships around the island in a fresh show of force.<\/p>\n Beijing on Monday said the drills were \u201ca legitimate and necessary operation for safeguarding state sovereignty and national unity\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
China has ramped up warplane flights into Taiwan\u2019s so-called Air Defence Identification Zone since the 2016 election of former president Tsai Ing-wen, who considers the island \u201calready independent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Cross-strait tensions spiked again in April 2023, when China held three days of military drills after a meeting between Tsai and Pelosi\u2019s successor Kevin McCarthy.<\/p>\n
Taiwan\u2019s defence ministry began regularly detecting Chinese balloons drifting around Taiwan last December, ahead of the island\u2019s presidential elections in January.<\/p>\n