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TAIPEI—China’s People’s Liberation Army dispatched a swarm of jet fighters and other military aircraft on sorties near Taiwan on Sunday in a move that Beijing said was a response to provocation by Washington and Taipei.
A total of 71 Chinese warplanes were detected flying in the region surrounding Taiwan, with a few dozen crossing the median line of the 100-mile-wide Taiwan Strait that separates the island from mainland China, according to Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. The ministry also said it detected seven Chinese naval vessels in waters near Taiwan on Sunday.
On Monday, the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command released footage on China’s Weibo social-media platform showing several jet fighters taking off and Navy officers carrying out reconnaissance duties. A Chinese military spokesman said in an online statement that Sunday’s joint combat readiness patrol and live-firing drill was a response to “escalating collusion and provocation by the U.S. and Taiwan,” though he didn’t elaborate.
The flurry came a day after President Biden signed an $858 billion defense-policy bill that was cheered in Taipei. The National Defense Authorization Act, passed by the U.S. Congress earlier this month, would authorize up to $10 billion over five years to finance sales of weaponry and military equipment to Taiwan, as well as to provide training and other security assistance to help the democratically self-ruled island defend itself against a possible invasion by China.
Beijing regards Taiwan as a part of China and has vowed to take control of the island, by force if necessary. Tensions across the Taiwan Strait have been elevated ever since U.S. House Speaker
visited Taiwan this summer, prompting China to send warplanes, warships and missiles in a temporary blockade encircling the island.
In a written statement, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said the flurry of Chinese military activity revealed again Beijing’s use of force to resolve differences. It said that the collaboration between Washington and Taipei contributes to the stability of the Indo-Pacific region and that it will continue to strengthen its military preparedness.
“It hopes to continue the process of normalizing such frequent flights since the August drills,” Lin Ying-yu, a Taiwan-based PLA expert who teaches at Tamkang University, said of Beijing.
The PLA flights, which included more than a dozen J-16 jet fighters, two reconnaissance drones and an airborne early warning and control aircraft, notably didn’t involve bombers, a frequent participant in past sorties. That suggests China’s military may be more focused at present on maintaining air supremacy over the Taiwan Strait, rather than aiming at an attack on Taiwan, Mr. Lin said. The U.S. Navy sails warships through the strait from time to time in so-called freedom of navigation operations.
The Chinese military’s maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait came as it also conducted annual joint naval drills with Russia. Moscow has been sharply critical of increased U.S. support for Taiwan, repeating Beijing’s argument that it represents a violation of Chinese sovereignty. Beijing, meanwhile, continues to refrain from outwardly criticizing Mr. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine even as it insists that Kyiv’s sovereignty should be respected.
On Tuesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen plans to convene a high-level national security meeting on “strengthening defense and adjusting the armed force’s structure,” according to a statement from her office. After the meeting, she is expected to announce a long-debated lengthening of the island’s compulsory military training.
Write to Joyu Wang at joyu.wang@wsj.com
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