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Record 16 PLA warships sailed close to Taiwan in single day, island’s defence ministry says
- Number tops previous high of 14 warships sent towards Taiwan as Beijing reacted to Nancy Pelosi’s visit in August
- Increased military pressure also comes as self-ruled island is preparing for presidential elections in January
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Beijing sent a record number of warships close to Taiwan within a single day last week, surpassing a previous high set during then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei last year.
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People’s Liberation Army warships made 16 trips near Taiwan in the 24 hours before 6am on Saturday, the island’s defence ministry said, despite no announcement of any major drills nearby.
That topped the 14 warships sent towards Taiwan as Beijing, which considers Taiwan to be a breakaway province, reacted to Pelosi’s visit in August with days of unprecedented live-fire drills around the island.
In April, it sent as many as 12 warships in a day as part of another large-scale exercise after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen met Pelosi’s successor Kevin McCarthy in California.
Beijing has sent fighter jets and warships to Taiwan’s self-declared air defence identification zone (ADIZ) almost every day in recent years, as relations worsened under Tsai’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Those trips only intensified after Pelosi’s visit, with PLA jets more willing to fly across the median line of the Taiwan Strait, a tacit boundary that both sides generally abided by for decades until 2019. Beijing no longer recognises the line.
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