 Taiwan warns Chinese military drills pose 'enormous threat' Taipei (AFP) Dec 26, 2017 - Frequent and increased Chinese military drills pose an "enormous threat" to Taiwan's security, Taipei warned on Tuesday in an annual defence review that starkly highlighted rising cross-strait tensions. China views Taiwan as part of its territory to be reunified at some point -- by military force, if necessary. The two sides split after a civil war in 1949. Although Taiwan is a self-ruling democracy, it has never formally declared independence. Beijing has stepped up drills around the island since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen took office last year, as she refuses to acknowledge both sides are part of "one China". Local media estimate Chinese warplanes have conducted at least 20 drills around Taiwan this year, compared to just eight in 2016. The latest known drill took place last week when several Chinese planes, including jet fighters, passed through the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan to the Pacific and back. The frequent drills "have created enormous threat to security in the Taiwan Strait," Taiwanese defense minister Feng Shih-kuan said in the 14th national defense report released Tuesday. The report highlighted the David versus Goliath mismatch between the two rival's forces, saying Taiwan's military needed to adapt to a "multiple deterrence strategy" in the face of the fast-growing Chinese army. The report estimated Chinese troop numbers at two million compared to around 210,000 in Taiwan's army. "Taiwan cannot compare with China's defense budget and military developments," Feng said in the report. Instead Taiwan was "seriously reviewing and drawing a plan to develop asymmetric warfare to deter advances by the Chinese military," he added. In response to increasing China's electronic warfare capabilities, Taiwan established its own cyber army command centre this year, which currently has around 1,000 people, according to the ministry. It has also restructured its air force to centralise its anti-aircraft and missile defense command. Chinese jets also flew over the Sea of Japan (East Sea) earlier this month, prompting South Korea and Japan to scramble jets. China's air force said then it was the first time its aircraft had flown through the Tsushima Strait between South Korea and Japan. Earlier this year, China sent its only aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, through the Taiwan Strait during a drill as a show of strength, but it did not enter Taiwanese waters.
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China's large-scale land reclamation around disputed reefs and shoals in the South China Sea is "moving ahead steadily", state media has reported, and is on track to use giant "island-builders" to transform even more of the region.
Beijing claims nearly all of the sea and has been turning reefs in the Spratly and Paracel chains into islands, installing military facilities and equipment in the area where it has conflicting claims with neighbours.
"The course of construction is moving ahead steadily and a series of striking results have been achieved," according to a report that appeared Friday on Haiwainet, a website under the Communist Party's flagship newspaper the People's Daily.
The projects have "completely changed the face of the South China Sea's islands and reefs", the report said.
The aggressive campaign has been a source of contention with neighbouring countries. China's sweeping claims overlap with those of Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan.
During 2017 China built 290,000 square meters (29 hectares) of facilities on South China Sea reefs and islands, including underground storage, administrative buildings and large radar installations, the report said.
"To improve the livelihood and work conditions of people living on the islands, and strengthen the necessary military defences of the South China Sea within China's sovereignty, China has rationally expanded the area of its islands and reefs," it said.
The sea is believed to hold vast oil and gas deposits and $5 trillion in annual trade passes through it.
The report noted that with last month's introduction of the new super-dredger Tianjing, a "magical island building machine", and other "magical machines" soon to come, "the area of the South China Sea's islands and reefs will expand a step further".
China is also building a floating nuclear power plant, the report said, to provide power for those living in the Sansha city area.
Sansha lies on Woody Island in the Paracel chain -- which is also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan -- and administers much of China's claims in the South China Sea.
China established Sansha in 2012 by unilaterally awarding it two million square kilometres of sea and declaring it the country's largest city.
Earlier this month a US think-tank released new satellite images showing deployment of radar and other equipment on the disputed islands.
The Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said that over the course of 2017, China had been advancing the next phase of development with construction of infrastructure to support air and naval bases, such as underground storage areas and large radar and sensor arrays.
"We believe that some individuals are making a fuss about this. They're trying to hype it up," said foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang after the first report was published.
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