Taiwan's armed forces conducted anti-aircraft landing exercises on Wednesday, in a display of their defense capabilities ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, amid escalating tensions and renewed threats towards Taiwan from China.

A military confrontation was simulated during the exercise, as the Taiwanese forces faced an attack by enemy forces via helicopter landings, while the Taiwanese forces fired at them from armored vehicles and attack helicopters.

The routine exercises come amid renewed threats from China, where the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said last Monday that it had detected 57 Chinese aircraft near the island during the past 24 hours, including 28 aircraft that flew in the Taiwanese air defense zone.

Taiwan condemned this second military exercise in the region in less than a month.

China considers democratic Taiwan part of its territory, and under President Xi Jinping, Beijing has intensified its military, economic and diplomatic pressure on Taiwan because its currently elected government considers the island a sovereign state and not part of "one China".

China believes that the increase in the number of warplanes it is sending towards Taiwan is due to the island's "military complicity" with the United States.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office, said on Wednesday at a press briefing that the exercises being conducted by the People's Liberation Army are a typical warning against the increasing provocation by Taipei, which has damaged peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait. This was reported by the "Bloomberg" news agency.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said he highly doubts that escalating Chinese military activities near the Taiwan Strait are a sign of an imminent invasion of the island by Beijing.