China puts on biggest naval show near Taiwan since 90s - what's happening now?
Chinese navy deploys its biggest fleet near Taiwan in almost 30 years with about 90 vessels spread across regional waters. Taiwanʼs defense ministry spots dozens of military aircraft and ships in nearby areas
Chinaʼs navy is showing off its biggest muscle-flex near Taiwan since the mid-90s (when the island held its presidential vote). The defense ministry in Taipei says theres an un-announced but very real build-up happening right now.
Sun Li-fang‚ defense spokesperson points out that Chinese vessels are spread-out from south Japan down to the South China Sea: its the largest show of force in decades. The move comes right after President Lai Ching-teʼs recent US-territory stops (which made Beijing pretty mad)
Taiwanʼs military raised its alert-level after spotting some interesting moves: China marked-out seven air zones and put lots of ships in place. In just one day they tracked:
- 47 military planes buzzing around
- 12 navy vessels doing their thing
- 9 “civilian“ ships (probably coast guard) hanging about
The defense folks say Chinaʼs trying to build two naval “walls“ in the Pacific - one close-by and one further out; its like theyre trying to make Taiwan Strait their own private swimming pool. A top security source says these ships arent just floating around: theyre practicing how to block-off the area and push away any foreign ships that might show up
Chinese forces are extra-busy north of Taiwan (near Zhejiang) where 26 aircraft were spotted - while others spread out in the strait and southwest areas. Its worth noting that Beijing hasnt said a word about these moves‚ but they sure dont look like regular patrol stuff
