The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today detailed a surge in Chinese military activity over the past 24 hours as Beijing wrapped up a second day of war games overnight yesterday, saying it had detected 59 warplanes and 23 navy ships operating around Taiwan.
China announced yesterday that its Strait Thunder-2025A drills, that included some live-fire drills in the sea, had finished.
China said the exercises were a response to what it views as provocations from Taiwan President William Lai (賴清德), who won the election last year and who Beijing reviles as a "separatist."
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense
The MND in its regular morning update of Chinese military activities over the previous 24 hours, reported a rise in navy ships compared with its report the prior day, though a drop in the number of warplanes.
Eighteen of the warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which used to serve as an unofficial boundary and which China says it does not recognise, the ministry said in its statement.
Taiwan's government denounced the drills and called China a "troublemaker."
The exercises also drew concern from the US, Japan, the EU and Britain.
China last year staged two rounds of major war games around Taiwan.
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