Merchant shipping has been warned it needs to tread carefully when passing through one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes this week as China carries out military drills around the island of Taiwan.
China has bumped its number of navy and coast guard ships in waters near Taiwan, the southern Japanese islands, and the East and South China Seas to around 90 over the weekend. Two-thirds of these ships are believed to be navy vessels. Although not a rare occurrence, this is China’s largest drill near Taiwan this year.
China has also taken out seven zones of reserved airspace. As a precaution, Taiwan opted to raise its alert level on Monday.
The temporary reserved areas of airspace are valid from Monday to Wednesday. However, Taiwan’s ministry of national defence stated that it observed six aircraft cross the median line of the Taiwan Strait and enter Taiwan’s southwestern air defence identification zone.
The Taiwan coast guard stated that the grey zone intrusions carried out by Chinese coast guard ships and the People’s Liberation Army are “China’s unilateral actions to undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait region” and that they “undermine cross-strait exchanges and escalate tensions”.
It added that “according to international law and the United Nations Charter, the Chinese Communist Party has no right to carry out any intrusion or law enforcement” in Taiwanese waters.
The Military News Agency of Taiwan reminded commercial cargo ships and fishing boats sailing in waters near the military drills to be more vigilant and pay attention to safety.
