Chinese Warplanes Surround Taiwan

Taiwanese defense and coast guard officials said dozens of Chinese warplanes and ships had been detected around the island, less than two weeks before self-ruled Taiwan's inauguration for a new president.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has said it will not rule out using force to bring the island under Beijing's control.

The Chinese military presence around the island announced by Taipei, which included another 23 warplanes and five naval vessels in the 24 hours leading up to 6 am, also came a day after a US warship sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait.

The Coast Guard in Taipei said it had detected 12 Chinese ships around its outlying island of Kinmen.

Kinmen, administered by Taipei but located five kilometers from the Chinese city of Xiamen, has seen heightened tensions in recent months, with Chinese coast guard ships maintaining a presence around it.

The Taiwan Coast Guard said a fleet of seven ships "belonging to China's maritime and fishery departments entered our restricted waters" around 3 pm local time, about 4 nautical miles southwest of Kinmen.

"We suspected the fleet, together with three Chinese fishing boats, were engaged in maritime exercises," it said.

Around the same time, "another fleet of four Chinese coast guard ships entered our prohibited and restricted waters and another ship sailed outside our waters."

The vessels left about 90 minutes later, the coast guard said, noting that this was "the fourth formation of Chinese coast guard ships sailing in Kinmen waters" in May.

It was also the first time that Chinese coast guard ships "and other Chinese official ships" had sailed together at the same time, it said.

China has stepped up patrols around Kinmen after a series of deadly fishing incidents earlier this year.

A Chinese speedboat carrying four people capsized near Kinmen on February 14 while Taiwan's coast guard was pursuing it, killing two people.