Taiwan says China uses record number of aircraft in war games

PHOTO CAPTION: China unveils its J-20 stealth fighter on an air show in Zhuhai, Guangdong Province, China, November 1, 2016. China Daily/via REUTERS

By Ben Blanchard

TAIPEI (Reuters) -China used a record 153 military aircraft in war games around Taiwan, the island's government said on Tuesday, adding that such drills without prior warning were a danger to the entire region.

China said the one-day "Joint Sword-2024B" drill, conducted with no advance notice on Monday, was a warning against "separatist acts" after a national day speech last week by Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te that Beijing had denounced.

Beijing views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, a claim the government in Taipei rejects, saying only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

"Any drills without prior warning will cause great disturbance to peace and stability in the entire region," Taiwan's Premier Cho Jung-tai told reporters in Taipei.

"China's drills not only affect Taiwan's neighbourhood, but also seriously affect the entire international navigational rights and air and sea space, so attracted the attention of other countries."

In a daily update on Chinese military activity around the island in the previous 24 hours, Taiwan's defence ministry said it spotted 153 military aircraft. It had already described the number of aircraft as a one-day record by Monday afternoon when it had spotted 125.

A ministry map showed 28 of those aircraft had crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, which had previously served as an unofficial barrier, though China does not recognise it.

Other areas that saw activity were waters off the southeastern coast, home to a major Taiwan air base, and to its southwest, at the top part of the South China Sea, site of the Taiwan-controlled Pratas Islands.

Also spotted were 14 ships of the Chinese navy and 12 "official" vessels, the ministry said, referring to ships of the coast guard and similar agencies.

China's drills prompted concern from the United States and its allies, with the Pentagon calling them "irresponsible, disproportionate, and destabilising".

DRILLS "BACKFIRED" ON CHINA

Taiwan has complained of almost daily Chinese military activity nearby in the past five years, and China has now held at least four rounds of large scale war games since 2022.

China's pressure attempts had only solidified support for Taipei, said Kuan Bi-ling, head of Taiwan's Ocean Affairs Council, which runs the coast guard.

"China's exercise, while intended to put military pressure on Taiwan and the international community, has backfired and led to greater international solidarity against China's expansionist behaviour," she wrote on her Facebook page.

"Cross-Strait relations are no longer just cross-Strait relations; they are now at the heart of international relations in the Indo-Pacific."

The investigation bureau of Taiwan's justice ministry said it had found several false online reports, such as untrue assertions of Taiwan's military failing to respond quickly and that ships carrying liquefied natural gas had been forced to turn around.

The messages formed "cognitive manipulation" by "overseas hacking armies" which stole or hacked into social media pages, the bureau said on Tuesday without directly blaming China.

Speaking during a visit to the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands which sit opposite China's Fuzhou city and where the Chinese coast guard faced off with Taiwan ships during Monday's drills, a senior Taiwan official said China needed to think about what kind of country it wanted to be.

"Mainland China should become a civilised power in the world, be a friend, not an enemy, and be liked by everyone, not feared by them," said Luo Wen-jia, head of Taiwan's Straits Exchange Foundation, a semi-official body that deals with day-to-day issues between the two sides of the strait.

Beijing's war games have not caused alarm for most Taiwanese, accustomed to a latent threat of attack since 1949 when the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island after losing a civil war to Mao Zedong's communists.

Taiwan's benchmark stock index closed up 0.3% on Monday, and up 1.4% on Tuesday, ahead of expected stellar third quarter earnings on Thursday by chipmaker TSMC <2330.TW>, the most valuable listed company in Asia.

(Reporting by Ben BlanchardEditing by Lincoln Feast, Clarence Fernandez, Peter Graff)