Two Chinese SU-30 fighter jets take off from an unspecified location to fly a patrol over the South China Sea. Photo / AP
China's communist government mouthpiece has launched into a spectacular tirade against the United States and its allies after 56 Chinese warplanes crossed into Taiwan's air defence zone yesterday.
In an editorial overnight, The Global Times said the "peaceful atmosphere" on the island territory that existed in the area only a few years ago has all but disappeared - and that pressure from the West had resulted in a "sense of urgency that the war may be triggered at any time".
Tension has been building over Taiwan for many years, but yesterday they were further stoked when Taiwan urged Beijing to stop "irresponsible provocative actions" after 56 Chinese warplanes crossed into its air defence zone in yet another record incursion.
The defence ministry said it scrambled aircraft to broadcast warnings after 36 fighter jets, 12 H-6 nuclear-capable bombers and four other planes entered its southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ).
Four more fighters entered the zone in a night sortie, bringing the total to 56 planes, the ministry added.
The US State Department issued a statement accusing China of carrying out "provocative military activities" that "undermines regional peace and stability", adding "the US commitment to Taiwan is rock solid".
However, China has hit back in its scathing Global Times piece saying its display yesterday was a "severe warning" to the secessionist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) authorities on the island.
"The strategic collusion between the US and Japan and the DPP authorities is becoming more audacious, and the situation across the Taiwan Straits has almost lost any room for manoeuvre teetering on the edge of a face-off, creating a sense of urgency that the war may be triggered at any time," it said.
"The secessionist forces on the island will never be allowed to secede Taiwan from China under whatever names or by whatever means, and, the island will not be allowed to act as an outpost of the US' strategic containment against China."
The paper claimed that the "new mainstream public opinion on the Chinese mainland" is that China should make earnest preparations based on the possibility of combat.
"Now, we will like to warn the DPP authorities and their supporters: do not continue to play with fire. They should see that the Chinese mainland's preparation to use force against Taiwan secessionist forces is much stronger than ever before," it said.
"If the US and the DPP authorities do not take the initiative to reverse the current situation, the Chinese mainland's military punishment for "Taiwan independence" secessionist forces will eventually be triggered. Time will prove that this warning is not just a verbal threat."
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), Taiwan's top China policymaking body, accused Beijing of "seriously damaging the status quo of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" with its recent string of incursions.
"We demand the Beijing authorities immediately stop its non-peaceful and irresponsible provocative actions," MAC spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng said in a statement.
"China is the culprit for causing tensions between the two sides of the (Taiwan) Strait and it has further threatened regional security and order," he added, saying Taiwan "will never compromise and yield" to threats.
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 the mainland.
Self-ruled democratic Taiwan lives 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.
In the past two years, Beijing has begun sending large sorties into Taiwan's defence zone to signal dissatisfaction at key moments - and to keep Taipei's ageing fighter fleet regularly stressed.
Nearly 150 Chinese warplanes have breached Taiwan's ADIZ since Friday, when Beijing marked its National Day with its then-biggest aerial show of force, buzzing the island with 38 planes.
That was followed by another incursion by 39 planes on Saturday, sparking criticism from Washington.
State Department spokesman Ned Price reiterated on Monday that the United States was "very concerned" by the "provocative" moves by Beijing.
"This activity is destabilising, it risks miscalculation and it undermines regional peace and security," Price told reporters.
"We strongly urge Beijing to cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure and coercion against Taiwan," he said, calling US commitment to the island "rock-solid".
China's foreign ministry on Monday accused Washington of sending out "an extremely wrong and irresponsible signal" with "provocative" actions such as selling arms to Taipei and sending its warships to the Taiwan Strait.
"The US should correct its mistakes, earnestly abide by the 'one China Principle' … prudently and appropriately handle the Taiwan issue, stop bolstering 'Taiwanese independence' separatist forces," said spokeswoman Hua Chunying.
Beijing has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who rejects its stance that Taiwan is part of "one China".
Under President Xi Jinping, Chinese warplanes are crossing into Taiwan's ADIZ at an unprecedented rate.
Last year, a record 380 Chinese military jets made incursions into Taiwan's defence zone, and the number this year as of early October has already exceeded 600.
Last week, 24 Chinese warplanes flew into the zone after Taiwan applied to join a major trans-Pacific trade pact, a move Beijing has opposed.
Friday's show of force came the same week China accused Britain of "evil attentions" after it sent a frigate to sail through the Taiwan Strait, which Beijing claims as its own waterway.
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.
Monday's incursion "was a way for Beijing to tell Washington that it will not submit to US warnings, that it, not Washington, sets the rules in this part of the world," said J Michael Cole, a Taipei-based analyst at the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme.