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©Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Customers dine near a giant screen broadcasting news footage of Air Force aircraft under the Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) participating in a combat readiness patrol and ‘Joint Sword’ exercises around T
TAIPEI (Reuters) – The increased frequency of Chinese military activities around Taiwan has recently increased the risk of events “getting out of control” and leading to an accidental clash, the island’s defense minister said on Saturday.
Taiwan has said dozens of warplanes, drones, bombers and other aircraft have been in the area in the past two weeks, as well as warships and the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong.
China, which considers democratically governed Taiwan its own territory, has conducted many such exercises on the island in recent years, seeking to assert its claims of sovereignty and put pressure on Taipei.
When asked by reporters on the sidelines of parliament whether there was a risk that a casual incident would lead to a wider conflict given the frequency of Chinese activities, Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said: “This is something which we are very concerned about.”
Warships from China’s southern and eastern theater commands are operating together off Taiwan’s east coast, he added.
“The risks of activities involving aircraft, ships and weapons will increase, and both sides should pay attention,” Chiu said.
China has not commented on the exercises around Taiwan, and the Defense Ministry did not respond to requests for comment.
Chiu said that when the Shandong was at sea, which Taiwan first reported on September 11, the ship acted as the “counterforce” in the exercises. Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang added that Chinese Eastern Theater Command troops were the “attacking force,” simulating a combat scenario.
Taiwan’s traditional military planning for a potential conflict has been to use its mountainous east coast, especially the two major air bases there, as a place to regroup and maintain its forces, as the country does not face China directly, unlike the west coast of the island.
But China is increasingly flexing its efforts on Taiwan’s east coast and generally demonstrating its ability to operate much further away from China’s coastline.
China normally conducts large-scale exercises from July to September, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said.
On Saturday, the ministry said China had largely scaled back its exercises and reported it had seen only two Chinese aircraft operating in its air defense zone in the past 24 hours.
Taiwan has often said it would remain calm and not escalate the situation, but that it would not allow “repeated provocations” from China, whose forces have so far not intruded into Taiwan’s territorial waters or airspace.