A record number of Chinese warplanes and naval vessels surrounded Taiwan during Beijing's one-day, large-scale military exercise on Monday, the self-governing island's Ministry of Defense said.
China conducted Joint Sword-2024-B around Taiwan over Monday to test its troops' integrated joint operation capabilities and in retaliation against the island's government pushing back against Beijing's aims to occupy it.
The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense said in a statement that between 5 a.m. local time Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, it detected that China had deployed 153 warplanes, 14 warships and 12 other vessels around the island during the exercise.
Among the warplanes, 111 crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's southwestern and eastern Air Defense Identification Zones.
