‘Bullying acts’

Taiwan yesterday accused Beijing of bullying and damaging regional peace after Chinese fighter jets and bombers made their largest ever incursion into the island's air defence zone. 

Beijing marked its National Day on Friday with its biggest aerial show of force against Taiwan to date, buzzing the self-ruled democratic island with 38 warplanes, including nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.

Democratic Taiwan's 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion by China which views the island as its territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary.

Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese warplanes are crossing into Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on a near daily basis. Xi has described Taiwan becoming part of the mainland as "inevitable".

But Friday's incursion sparked a particularly sharp rebuke from Taipei.

"China has been bellicose and damaging regional peace while engaging in many bullying acts," Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters yesterday.

Friday's show of force came the same week Beijing accused Britain of "evil attentions" after it sent a frigate to sail through the Taiwan Strait.

China claims the strait as its own waterway, along with most of the disputed South China Sea. Most other nations view them as international waters open to all.

Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taipei since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who views the island as "already independent" and not part of a "one China".

Last year, Chinese military jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan's defence zone, and the number of breaches for the first nine months of this year has already exceeded 500.