According to the Chinese and Taiwanese defence ministries, the Chinese military conducted large-scale joint combat strike drills, sending warplanes and navy vessels toward Taiwan.
The exercises coincided with the arrival in Taiwan of a group of German lawmakers on Monday morning.
The delegation is led by Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, the German Parliament’s Defence Committee chairwoman.
The exercises have continued into Monday, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry, with its missile systems monitoring Chinese warplanes and navy vessels.
The actions of China “have severely disrupted the peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits and surrounding waters,” according to the ministry.
The German lawmakers will meet with Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and the head of Taiwan’s National Security Council and the Mainland Affairs Council, which deals with China-related issues.
In recent years, China has increased its pressure on Taiwan’s military by dispatching warplanes or navy vessels almost daily to the self-ruled island.
China claims sovereignty over the island, which separated from the mainland following a civil war in 1949.
China’s People’s Liberation Army flew 57 warplanes and four ships toward Taiwan between 6 a.m. on Sunday and 6 a.m. on Monday, according to a statement issued by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on Monday.
Twenty-eight of those planes flew over the Taiwan Strait’s median line, an unofficial boundary that both sides had previously respected.
The drills were announced around 11 p.m. on Sunday, with the “primary goal being to practise land strikes and sea assaults,” according to Shi Yi, a spokesperson for the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command.
China sent a record 71 planes and 7 ships to Taiwan at the end of December, the largest such exercise in 2022.
Taiwan will begin its annual two-day military exercises on Wednesday, which takes place ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, aiming to demonstrate the military’s capabilities.
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