China’s military has gotten closer to Taiwan than ever before. As they wait for Lai Ching-te to become president of Taiwan next week, they have also practiced attacks on foreign ships.
A few months ago, the Chinese military sent ships and planes close to Taiwan to practice attacking in the area. Taiwan thinks that China’s military will be more active during the introduction of its new president.
This week, fifteen Chinese planes, some of which were Su-30 jets, crossed into Taiwan’s air defense area. A top security officer said that some of the planes were going into the Southern Taiwan Strait or the Bashi Channel, which is the waterway between Taiwan and the Philippines.
“They are like flies buzzing us every day,” the official said. They also said that the number of times they fly and their flight paths are changing, getting bigger.
China usually sends out four ships at a time to patrol near the island, but Taiwanese officials say that China is now being “more proactive” and doing more. The defense office of Taiwan said that they have full control of the situation in Taiwan.
Sun Li-fang, a spokeswoman for the Defense Ministry, said, “The national military is not the one causing trouble in the Taiwan Strait.” We won’t do anything to cause trouble, and we need to make it clear that any action that does that is bad for peace and stability in the area.
China says there is no middle ground between it and Taiwan because they consider the island to be part of their land, so this has been going on for a long time. Taiwan has been reporting every day on what they see as Chinese action, but they haven’t given many details yet.
