Beijing conducts war games in the Pacific, issues threats to NATO

A record number of Chinese military aircrafts have surrounded Taiwan as Beijing begins conducting a series of war games in the Pacific today.

Taiwan's defence ministry said in recent hours it had detected 66 Chinese aircrafts within a 24-hour window.

It comes as China as well as Russia threatened NATO against 'provoking confrontation' after the alliance claimed that China had 'become a decisive enabler of Russia's war against Ukraine'. The military presence near to the selfruled island of Taiwan - which China claims is part of its territory - comes a day after a Chinese aircraft was spotted around the island that it said were headed for exercises with the PLA aircraft carrier Shandong.

In a update this morning, the defence ministry said: '66 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6am (2200 GMT Wednesday) today,' adding it had 'responded accordingly'.

Of the record-breaking fleet spotted heading towards the western Pacific, 56 were seen crossing the sensitive median line bisecting the Taiwan Strait - a narrow 180-kilometre waterway separating the island from China.

An illustration released by the defence ministry showed some Chinese aircrafts coming within 61 kilometres of Taiwan's southern tip.

The year's previous record was broken in May, when Beijing sent 62 military aircraft and 27 naval vessels around Taiwan. That occurred in the middle of war games Beijing launched on the heels of the inauguration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te, who Beijing regards as a 'dangerous separatist'.

Military expert Su Tzu-yun said China's latest show of force was a reaction to recent political developments, including Washington's new de facto ambassador to Taiwan meeting with and expressing support for Taipei.

'Beijing puts pressure on Taiwan in order to express its displeasure at the support it enjoys,' said Su of Taiwan's Institute for National Defence and Security Research.

Meanwhile China issued warning to NATO after the bloc claimed that Xi Jingping's nation holds a key role in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

In response, a spokesperson for Beijing's mission to the European Union said: 'NATO should stop hyping up the socalled China threat and provoking confrontation and rivalry, and do more to contribute to world peace and stability.'

'It is known to all that China is not the creator (of) the Ukraine crisis. China's position on Ukraine is open and aboveboard,' it added. China has refused to condemn Russia's invasion and last year released a paper calling for a 'political settlement' to the conflict, which Western countries said could enable Russia to retain much of the territory it has seized in Ukraine.

And since the invasion the two country's strategic partnership has grown closer despite Beijing presenting itself as a neutral party in the war and claiming it is not sending lethal assistance to either side, unlike the United States. But it has, however, openly offered a critical lifeline to Russia's isolated economy, with trade booming since the conflict began.

With tensions around the NATO summit in Washington swirling, China's defence minister Wellington Koo yesterday insisted that the Shandong had not passed 'through the Bashi Channel', the area off Taiwan's southern tip where Chinese ships typically transit en route to the Pacific Ocean.

Instead, it 'went further south through the Balintang Channel towards the Western Pacific,' he said, referring to a waterway just north of the Philippines' Babuyan Island about 250 kilometres south of Bashi.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday Japan confirmed that four PLA navy vessels - including the Shandong - were sailing 520 kilometres southeast of Miyako island. The Philippines' military public affairs chief said they had received reports of a China-Russia exercise taking place in the Philippine Sea but did not comment about the Shandong directly.