Taiwan Says China Has Deployed Largest Fleet of Ships in Decades
Taiwan is on high alert in response to China’s unannounced deployment of naval and Coast Guard ships, as tensions rise over U.S. support for the island.
Taiwan said on Tuesday that China was conducting its largest maritime operations in nearly three decades, sending nearly 90 naval and coast guard vessels into waters stretching from the southern Japanese islands to the South China Sea.
Taiwanese defense officials said the scope of the deployment suggested that China was not only trying to show that it could choke the self-governed island, but also that it could block American allies in the region like Japan and the Philippines from coming to Taiwan’s defense.
China has “extended their military strength outward,” Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng, a senior official in Taiwan’s ministry of defense, told reporters. “The numbers are indeed astonishing,” he said, referring to the surge of Chinese vessels in the waters.
Taiwan is on high alert in response to China’s unannounced deployment of naval and Coast Guard ships, as tensions rise over U.S. support for the island.
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