Taiwan rises alert as China deploys ships in likely exercise

A senior Taiwan security official said China had nearly 90 navy and coast guard ships near Taiwan, the southern Japanese islands and the East and South China Seas, of which around two-thirds were naval.

Beijing’s defence ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, Reuters news agency reported.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, had been expected to launch another round of exercises in response to Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te’s trip to the Pacific, which included stopovers in Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam, security sources had told Reuters.

Beijing set up seven “temporary reserved areas” of airspace until Wednesday to the east of its eastern Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, Taiwan’s defense ministry said in a statement.

MA/PR