China launches combat exercises around Taiwan in response to the law passed by the US to provide greater security for the island

• Asia Taiwan denounces the incursion of 29 Chinese military aircraft in its air defense zone

• Asia China sends 30 fighter jets to Taiwan's air defense zone

Beijing decided to close out Christmas Day by taking out 71 Chinese air force planes for a night out for a big mock fight around Taiwan.

Chinese

(ADIZ) and also regularly cross the median line of the strait, an unofficial border separating the two territories.

But this time the novelty was not in the fact of the Chinese military maneuvers itself, but in the

In Taipei they have assured that it is the largest incursion by Chinese planes since Beijing rehearsed massive invasion drills in the summer after the provocative visit to Taipei by the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.

The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China confirmed that its planes had carried out "attack drills" in response to the latest "provocation by Taiwan and the United States."

A reference to the new security bill signed on Saturday by President Joe Biden to help Taipei bolster its defenses: $10 billion in grants and loans for security assistance over the next five years.

Washington is Taiwan's great international backer and main arms supplier.

Since 2017, the previous administration of Donald Trump and the current one led by Biden have approved more than 20,000 million dollars in arms sales to the de facto independent island but which Beijing considers a breakaway province.

Biden has even said on several occasions that his country would defend Taipei in the event of an attack by China.

The last large arms consignment, worth $1.1 billion, was authorized in early September, just days before the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee advanced

integrated into the Defense Authorization Act. National for the next fiscal year, which was the one Biden signed on Saturday.

In addition to providing greater arms support, the legislation also includes a

.

"The more preparations we make, the less likely there will be rash attempts at aggression. The more united we are, the stronger and more secure Taiwan will become," Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said Monday during a military ceremony where senior officers of the island's army.

Tsai has reiterated that modernizing the military is a priority, especially to develop "comprehensive asymmetric warfare capabilities" with small, highly mobile precision weapons, such as anti-ship missiles that can be launched from the back of a truck.

In the middle of this year,

s, that it could extend compulsory military service by up to one year (now it is four months) and that it would double its annual production capacity for missiles.

Tsai's government also said it would speed up the development of its military drones to bolster its defenses against Beijing after seeing how Ukraine used them to resist a Russian invasion.

Tensions around Taiwan rose sharply after

.

The PLA then responded with a flurry of simulations of invasion around the island, including launching missiles that flew over Taiwan.

Since then, Chinese planes have continued almost every week to cross the median line of the strait, which for years was respected by Beijing as an unofficial border between the mainland and the autonomous island.

"Our troops will take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity," the Chinese military said after the drills on Sunday.

Last week, the PLA had already intensified its operations with a fighter aerial refueling exercise in southern Taiwan and a raid on the ADIZ with 18 bombers.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

• China

• taiwan

• Articles Lucas de la Cal