Taiwan calls Chinese increased military drills "abnormal"

Taipei [Taiwan], September 23 (ANI): Taiwan's Defence Minister has called China's military movements "abnormal", noting the recent amphibious exercises in addition to drills in China’s Fujian Province, reported Taipei Times. 
Taiwan's National Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said, "Our initial analysis is that they are doing joint drills in September, including land, sea, air and amphibious."
"The recent enemy situation is quite abnormal," he added. 
Recently, Taiwan has reported a rise in Chinese military activity over the past week as dozens of fighters, drones, bombers and other aircraft, as well as warships have been seen operating around the country, reported Taipei Times. 
The comment came after the ministry released a statement on Thursday stating that it was keeping a watch on Chinese activities near Dacheng Bay in Fujian Province. 
Moreover, according to the Taiwan security sources, China performs landing drills in the Bay Area. 
However, China has not commented on this issue yet and neither did its defence ministry respond to the two requests from Taiwan's ministry, Taipei Times reported. 
Chiu further said that releasing the information about Dacheng Bay was in line with his ministry's principle of telling people what was happening. 
A military researcher at the National Policy Foundation think tank, Chieh Chung, noted that China carried out landing drills in Dacheng Bay in September last year and the year before that. 
Those drills featured civilian ships with equipment practising "dockless unloading" to simulate a situation in which they might need to land after port facilities are knocked out of action or destroyed, Chieh said.
Underscoring the geographical difficulties, a senior US defence official told the US Congress that China would be hard-pressed to carry out a frontal, amphibious invasion of Taiwan, reported Taipei Times. 
Moreover, last week, China dispatched over 100 naval ships on regional exercises in areas such as waters in the South China Sea and off Taiwan's northeast coast, according to a regional security official. 
The National Defence Ministry further noted that China traditionally performs large-scale exercises from July to September, according to Taipei Times. 
Adding to this, the ministry said that it had detected 24 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force planes yesterday entering Taiwan's air defence zone over the previous 24 hours, with at least 17 crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait, as shown on a map they published.  
According to another security source, China was likely seeking to wear out Taiwan's military with constant missions so close to Taiwan, especially with longer flights along the median line than before, reported Taipei Times. 
“China is seeking to normalize these activities and push Taiwan into a corner,” the source said, adding that it risked a miscalculation if Chinese ships or aircraft got too close and Taiwan opened fire.
However, Taiwan has always said that it would stay calm and would not escalate the situation but also that it would not allow "repeated provocations” from China, the source added.
Earlier this month, Taiwan's National Defence Ministry issued a strong plea to Beijing to cease its continuous military provocations after the detection of more than 100 Chinese warplanes in close proximity to the island within a 24-hour period.
In a statement, the ministry expressed grave concern over the substantial number of warplanes, which it said posed "severe challenges to the Taiwan Strait and regional safety."
The ministry added, "The Communist military's persistent military harassment can easily result in a sharp increase in tensions and worsen regional security. We call on the Beijing authorities to take up its responsibility and immediately stop this kind of destructive, unilateral action."
The highest recorded number of Chinese warplanes entering Taiwan's ADIZ within a 24-hour period was reported in October 2021, when 56 planes conducted such incursions in a single day, CNN reported. (ANI)