China encircles Taiwan with warships, fighters

China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Saturday deployed warships and fighter jets to encircle the self-governed island of Taiwan, putting on an aggressive show of military might in response to Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's US stopover and meeting with House of Representatives speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this week.

- Sutirtho Patranobis

China claims Taiwan as a breakaway region and resents official interaction between the island and a third country, terming it as interference in internal affairs. Taiwan's government strongly objects to China's claims. Taiwan's defence ministry said in a statement that it detected 71 PLA aircraft and nine warships near Taiwan between 6am to 4pm on Saturday, with 45 of the warplanes crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entering the southwestern part of the island's air-defence identification zone.

Warships and warplanes passed over the median line in groups from the north, the centre and the south of the strait.