Taiwan says needs to be on alert to China
Taiwan said Tuesday it needs to be on alert for China's military activities.
That was the stark warning from the territory's Premier Su Tseng-chang.
He spoke a day after Beijing dispatched a record number of fighter jets and bombers to Taiwan.
"Taiwan definitely needs to be on alert, China is increasingly over the top. The world has also seen China's repeated violations of regional peace and pressure on Taiwan, so democratic countries have repeatedly issued warnings that our countrymen have to be self-reliant.
Since Friday, Taiwan has reported nearly 150 Chinese air force planes in the southern and southwestern part of its air defense zone.
Taipei calls the repeated nearby military activities 'grey zone' warfare - designed to both wear out Taiwan's forces and also test their responses.
The show of might from Beijing coincided with a key patriotic holiday - China's National Day.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification.
The island, which broke away from the mainland in 1949, rejects Beijing's claims and has its own democratically elected government.
It also has the support of the U.S. which has condemned China's recent military actions as destabilizing.
Japan has also weighed in, saying it was watching the situation closely and hoped China and Taiwan could resolve their differences through talks.
Taiwan has lived under the threat of invasion since the defeated Republic of China government fled to the island after losing a civil war with the Communists.
