Taiwan accused Beijing of bullying and damaging regional peace today after Chinese fighter jets and bombers made their largest-ever incursion into the island's air defence zone.
Beijing marked its National Day yesterday with its biggest aerial show of force against Taiwan, buzzing the self-ruled democratic island with 38 warplanes, including nuclear-capable H-6 bombers.
That was followed by a new record incursion today by 39 planes, said Taiwan's defence ministry.
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.
But yesterday'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 today.
"It's evident that the world, the international community, rejects such behaviours by China more and more."
Taiwan's defence ministry said it scrambled its aircraft to broadcast warnings after 22 fighters, two bombers and one anti-submarine aircraft entered the island's southwest ADIZ on Friday.
A second batch of 13 jets then crossed into Taiwan's ADIZ late yesterday, in a rare night incursion, bringing the total to 38.
The ADIZ is not the same as Taiwan's territorial airspace but includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China's own air defence identification zone and even includes some of mainland 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.
The previous single-day record was on 15 June lasy when 28 jets breached Taiwan's ADIZ.
Xi has described Taiwan becoming part of the mainland as "inevitable".
US military officials have begun to talk openly about fears that China could consider the previously unthinkable and invade.
Protection of Taiwan has become a rare bipartisan issue in Washington and a growing number of Western nations have begun joining the United States in "freedom of navigation" exercises to push back on China's claims to the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.
US warships regularly conduct "freedom of navigation" exercises in the strait separating Taiwan and mainland China, triggering angry responses from Beijing.
