41 Chinese military planes and ships detected before its president’s American stops

Taiwanese authorities indicated Friday that they had detected 41 Chinese military planes and ships near the island, before a trip abroad by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te whose stopovers in American territory irritate Beijing. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry announced that it had detected 33 Chinese aircraft and eight warships in 24 hours in its airspace and waters. It is the largest Chinese military deployment around Taiwan, which Beijing claims as part of China, in more than three weeks. Taiwan also spotted a balloon – the fourth since Sunday – about 172 kilometers west of the island.

In recent years, China has increased its military activity around the island to pressure Taipei into accepting its sovereignty claims. It deploys fighter planes, drones and warships around Taiwan almost daily. Lai Ching-te, who openly defends Taiwan’s sovereignty, leaves Saturday to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, the only Pacific nations among Taiwan’s 12 remaining allies. During this tour, Lai Ching-te, in power since May, will spend two nights in Hawaii and one night in Guam, meeting with “old friends” and «membres de think tanks»a presidential source told AFP on condition of anonymity. Taiwanese officials have already stopped on American soil during trips to the Pacific or Latin America, arousing the anger of Chinese leaders. Lai Ching-te’s predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen, had already passed through Hawaii and Guam during her first official visit to her Pacific allies in 2017.

“The Chinese (military) has the sacred mission of protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity and will resolutely crush all secessionist attempts for Taiwan’s independence”warned Wu Qian, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Defense, at a press conference on Thursday. As of Thursday evening, the Taiwanese military had deployed planes, ships and coastal missile systems after detecting 19 Chinese aircraft near the island. “It is not excluded that there will be a large-scale military exercise in response to Lai’s visit” Ching-te in Hawaii, estimated Su Tzu-yun, a military expert from the Taiwanese Institute for National Defense and Security Research, interviewed by AFP.