Is it a military drill? China deploys ships and planes around Taiwan but remains mum

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s secretive military appears to be up to something around Taiwan, but it’s unclear exactly what.

Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it had detected a dozen Chinese naval ships and 47 military planes in the past 24 hours but no live-fire activity as in previous drills. Taiwan’s military has been bracing for possible exercises by China in response to a recent overseas trip by Taiwan’s president that included Hawaii and Guam, an American territory.

Without any Chinese announcement, Taiwan officials are calling it training, said Taiwanese Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng, while noting that training can become drills, and drills can become war.

“It’s in the status of regular training,” he said at a news conference. “But under the status of normalized training, it’s able to mobilize military forces on such a large scale and carry out exercises in such a large area.”

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes the self-governing island having official interactions with other countries, and in particular, the United States. Lai spoke with with U.S. congressional leaders by phone while in Guam last week. While the U.S., like most of the world, doesn’t formally recognize Taiwan a a country, it is the largest supplier of arms to the island of 23 million people for its defense.

China, which views Lai as a separatist, held major military exercises around Taiwan following his inauguration in May and his National Day speech in October. It also held a major drill after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in 2022.

Taiwan’s military set up an emergency response center on Monday in response to increased Chinese naval activity and the announcement of