Taiwan Says China Is Disrupting Shipping With Massive Maritime Deployment

TaiwanPlus News

Taipei is accusing Beijing of disrupting international shipping and has urged it to stop violating international laws as it warns of a "very alarming" deployment of Chinese military and coast guard vessels.

Transcript

00:00Let's first take a look at the Chinese military activity being reported by Taiwan's Ministry

00:06of National Defence, or the MND.

00:08The Ministry of National Defence is saying there's been 53 Chinese military planes around

00:13Taiwan, 25 of those inside Taiwan's air defence identification zone, that's this white box

00:20here.

00:21This is higher than usual.

00:22On a normal day, we'll see between 10 and 15 Chinese planes around Taiwan.

00:29Now Beijing, since Monday, has set up seven so-called temporary reserved areas in areas

00:36to the east of their coast, 1,000 kilometres from Shanghai down to Fujian.

00:42Now these sort of restrictions on civilian and foreign vessels are often a sign of drills

00:47or exercises, but significantly this time Beijing has not confirmed it's been doing

00:52any drills.

00:53Taiwan has also been saying that it hasn't seen any live fire drills in this area.

00:59But Taiwan has been flagging a very alarming maritime deployment.

01:04It's the largest in nearly three decades, they're saying.

01:08Now the security sources have been telling Reuters that there's about 90 vessels, Coast

01:13Guard, Navy vessels in this area, and they haven't actually disclosed exactly where these

01:18boats are, but we do know that they're in the first island chain.

01:21That's from Japan in the north, south towards Taiwan, Borneo, and up to Vietnam.

01:28And we also know that China's navy is building so-called walls of boats in the Pacific.

01:33One wall is to the east of Taiwan, the other one further out in the Pacific.

01:38And the Ministry of National Defence says that with these movers, China is practising

01:42denying access to Taiwan, cutting it off from other countries.

01:47Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said China is disrupting international trade

01:52and called on Beijing to stop violating international law.

01:57When asked about this military activity, Beijing has said that it will never let go of unchecked

02:02separatist forces seeking independence in Taiwan.

02:06Taiwan says that it is going to remain on high alert as this activity continues.

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