China deploys over 90 ships around Taiwan, says Taipei

China is deploying dozens of ships in its biggest maritime mobilisation around Taiwan in years, Taipei said on Tuesday, after Beijing voiced fury at President Lai Ching-te’s recent visit to the United States.

Taiwanese forces were on high alert in anticipation of Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) staging war games in response to Lai’s US stopovers and call with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said the number of Chinese ships in the waters around the island exceeded Beijing’s maritime response to then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei in 2022, which was the largest-ever war games.

In those drills, Beijing deployed ballistic missiles, fighter jets and warships in what analysts described as practice for a blockade and ultimate invasion of Taiwan -- and was a display of how far China’s military had come since the last Taiwan Strait crisis in the mid-1990s.

Nearly 90 Chinese naval and coast guard ships were currently in waters along the so-called first island chain, which links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines, a senior Taiwanese security official said.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said earlier it had also detected 47 Chinese aircraft near the island in the 24 hours to 6:00am (2200 GMT).

That was the highest number of aircraft detected in a single day since a record 153 reported on Oct.15, after China staged major military drills in response to Lai’s National Day speech days earlier.

“It can indeed be said that the scale of these maritime forces exceeds the four drills since 2022,” defence ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang told reporters.

Sun said the latest exercises drew forces from three separate Chinese regional commands, while another defence ministry official said China’s actions were “not solely directed at Taiwan.”

There has been no public announcement by the PLA or Chinese state media about increased military activity in the East China Sea, Taiwan Strait, South China Sea or Western Pacific Ocean, where Taiwan said Chinese ships had been detected.

However, a Beijing foreign ministry spokeswoman said on Tuesday that China will “resolutely defend” its sovereignty.

China’s “coercive behaviour” threatens regional stability, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday.

“Now we’re clear-eyed about the challenges to peace and stability in this region and worldwide,” Austin said as he met his Japanese counterpart General Nakatani in Tokyo on Tuesday evening.

“That includes coercive behavior by the People’s Republic of China in the East China Sea and the South China Sea and elsewhere in the region,” Austin said.

“It includes Russia’s reckless war of choice in Ukraine, and it includes the DPRK (North Korea) support for Moscow’s war, as well as its other destabilising and provocative activities,” he added.

Austin, who is on his 13th trip to Asia as defence secretary, vowed that “America’s extended deterrence commitment to Japan and to the Republic of Korea is ironclad,” adding that the “US-Japan alliance has never been stronger.”

At the meeting on Tuesday, Japan’s defence minister said the regional security situation was “growing ever more severe.”

Nakatani also praised Austin for his initiative in “strengthening and cementing the deterrence of the Japan-US alliance.”

“These are very dynamic times,” Austin told Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at a separate meeting earlier on Tuesday.

“May our alliance remain the cornerstone of peace and stability in this region for the foreseeable future.”

The lack of an announcement from Beijing was unusual and, if drills were under way, could be a “deliberate strategy to sow confusion and exert psychological pressure,” Duan Dang, a Vietnam-based maritime security analyst, said.

“China’s current movements resemble what we would see during preparations for real combat, exceeding the scale of previous exercises,” he added.

Taipei-based security analyst J Michael Cole said the mix of PLA navy vessels and coast guard ships highlighted Beijing’s efforts to “increase interoperability” between the two.

Agencies