Dueling U.S., China Military Drills Highlight Rising Taiwan Risk
- Record number of Chinese flights enter Taiwan air defense zone
- U.S., allies conduct carrier exercises in seas near island
Source: Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force
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Taiwan is the focus of rival displays of might by the world’s major military powers this week, with record sorties by Chinese military planes off one coast and flotillas of U.S. and allied warships off another.
The 56 People’s Liberation Army aircraft that entered Taiwan’s air-defense-identification zone Monday represented the largest such incursion to date, and followed a similar record over the weekend. The flights, which drew a rebuke from the Biden administration, followed an unusually large exercise by American allies with three aircraft carriers sailing in training exercises in the nearby East Philippine Sea.