Days after a record number of near 150 Chinese aircraft flew into Taiwan’s air defence zone, Taipei has said that the tension between both countries is at the worst stage in 40 years.
Addressing the Taiwanese parliament, Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu-Kuo-Cheng, when asked by a lawmaker about the China situation in the parliament, said that the situation is worse in 40 years since he has joined the military, adding there was a risk of a "misfire" across the sensitive Taiwan Strait.
Chiu further described China’s capability and said that Beijing already has the capacity to invade Taiwan and that it will be capable of carrying out a “full scale” invasion by 2025.
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According to the Taiwan government, around150 aircraft belonging to China crossed its airspace
over a four-day period, part of a pattern of what Taipei calls Beijing's continued harassment of the island.
He further said that this situation is of the utmost urgency for Taiwan and that the government is channelizing a deal to sanction special military spending of T$240 billion ($8.6 billion) for homemade weapons including missiles and warships.
Beijing on Friday sent 38 fighter jets in two batches towards autonomous Taiwan to mark China’s National Day in what was witnessed as the largest ever incursion by Beijing in the history of the island.
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Last year, Chinese military jets made a record 380 incursions into Taiwan's defence zone, and the number of incursions for the first nine months of this year has already exceeded 500.
However, US warships regularly conduct "freedom of navigation" exercises in the waterway separating Taiwan and mainland China, triggering angry responses from Beijing. The US has a unique relationship with the island, providing military and other types of support since China's Nationalist government fled there in 1949 following the Chinese Civil War.
China has stepped up military and political pressure to try and force Taiwan to accept Chinese sovereignty. Taiwan says it is an independent country and will defend its freedom and democracy.
Taipei and Beijing have gone through periods of rapprochement, but the Chinese Communist Party has increasingly threatened reunification through military intervention.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has described the seizure of the self-governed democracy as "inevitable" and Beijing has ratcheted up pressure on Tsai since she was elected in 2016 on a mandate of an "independent" Taiwan.
