Taiwan's Taipei: Taiwan's defense ministry said on Monday that China's military sent 71 planes and seven ships toward Taiwan in a 24-hour show of force directed at the island. This came after China complained about Taiwan-related provisions in a US annual defense spending bill that was passed on Saturday.
In recent years, China has intensified its military harassment of Taiwan, which it claims is its own territory. The Communist Party's People's Liberation Army has also sent planes or ships almost daily toward the island.
According to Taiwan's ministry of national defense, 47 of the Chinese planes crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait between 6 a.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday. This was an unofficial boundary that both sides had tacitly accepted in the past.
18 J-16 fighters, 11 J-1 fighters, 6 Su-30 fighters, and drones were among the aircraft that China sent toward Taiwan.
Taiwan claimed that its own navy vessels as well as its land-based missile systems monitored the Chinese moves.
Shi Yi, the PLA's Eastern Theater Command spokesman, said in a statement on Sunday night, "This is a firm response to the current US-Taiwan escalation and provocation." It made the announcement that the PLA was conducting joint strike drills and combat patrols in the waters surrounding Taiwan.
Shi was referring to the defense spending bill for the United States, which describes China as a strategic threat. The legislation requires expanded cooperation with India on emerging defense technologies, readiness, and logistics, as well as authorizes increased security cooperation with Taiwan.
In response to US government actions supporting Taiwan, China's military has frequently used large-scale military exercises as a show of force. It responded to Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in August with extensive live-fire military exercises. Beijing sees foreign governments' visits to the island as a challenge to China's claim to sovereignty and de facto recognition of the island's independence.