BEIJING (Dispatches) -- China’s military said it had carried out combat drills around Taiwan, the second such exercises in less than a month, with the island’s defense ministry reporting it detected 57 Chinese aircraft.
The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement that its forces had organized “joint combat readiness patrols and actual combat drills” in the sea and airspace around Taiwan, focused on land strikes and sea assaults.
The aim of the exercises was to test joint combat capabilities and “resolutely counter the provocative actions of external forces and Taiwan independence separatist forces”, it added in a brief statement.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Monday that over the previous 24 hours it had detected 57 Chinese aircraft and four naval vessels operating around the island, including 28 aircraft which flew into Taiwan’s air defense zone.
Some of those 28 crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, an unofficial buffer between the two sides, including Su-30 and J-16 fighters, while two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers flew to the south of Taiwan, according to a ministry provided map.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring the island under its control, has been carrying out regular military incursions into the waters and air space near Taiwan over the past three years.
China carried out war games around Taiwan last August following a visit to Taipei by the then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
A high-ranking parliamentary delegation from Germany arrived in Taiwan on Monday ahead of an anticipated ministerial visit later this year in moves that could spark tensions with China.
The trip is set to be followed by a visit from German Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger, in the spring, sources told AFP. It would be the first by a member of the German cabinet in 26 years.
Berlin’s diplomatic overtures to Taiwan are likely to rile Beijing.
President Xi Jinping has made clear that what he calls the “reunification” of Taiwan cannot be passed on to future generations.
China opposes any official exchanges with Taiwan, and has reacted with growing anger to a flurry of visits by Western politicians to the island.
Also in August, the German air force boosted its presence in the Indo-Pacific with the deployment of 13 military aircraft, one year after it sent a frigate to the region for the first time in almost two decades.