China sends record number of nuclear bombers into Taiwan’s air defence zone after Japanese leader’s visit

China sent a record number of nuclear-capable bombers into Taiwan’s air defence zone on Tuesday in an apparent response to the visit of a key member of Japan’s ruling party.

The Taiwanese defence ministry on Tuesday said 29 aircraft were detected around the island, with at least 21 entering the nation’s southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the last 24 hours.

At least 18 of those aircraft were Xian H-6 strategic bombers, making it the largest number of long-distance nuclear bombers to enter Taiwan’s ADIZ since Taipei began releasing incursion data in September 2020.

Three Chinese naval vessels were also spotted, the defence ministry said.

The Taiwanese government said it monitored the situation and deployed its fighter aircraft, land-bassed missile systems and navy vessels to track Beijing’s jets. Before Tuesday, the highest number of bombers detected in Taiwan’s ADIZ came on October last year, numbering 16.

China routinely sends warplanes into the self-ruled island’s air defence zone, but incursions often spike in a show of protest against visits by Western lawmakers.

Taipei has been pushing to bolster diplomatic ties with Western democracies in the face of Beijing’s growing aggression, as it considers the island to be a part of its national territory, despite it being split from the mainland and self-ruled since 1949.

China’s fresh hostility comes on the heels of a visit on Sunday by a senior official from Western ally Japan. Koichi Hagiuda is the most senior member of Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) to visit the island in 19 years.

Tokyo on Monday said fighters were scrambled to cope with “a suspected intrusion into Japan’s airspace over the East China Sea” without mentioning further details.

President Tsai Ing-wen, following a meeting with Koichi Hagiuda, pledged to deepen security cooperation with Japan to ensure “freedom in the Indo-Pacific”.

“We have seen in recent years Taiwan-Japan relations have become ever closer,” Ms Tsai said.

“In the future, Taiwan will continue to deepen cooperation with Japan in various fields such as security and work together to ensure the freedom, openness and stability of the Indo-Pacific region.”

Mr Hagiuda said Taiwan was an “extremely important partner” with shared values such as “liberal democracy, basic human rights, and the rule of law.

“In this context, our help and cooperation with one another has built up over time,” he added.

He said Beijing should refrain from using force to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait and pointed out that Tokyo was determined to “bolster strike capabilities in an effort to strengthen deterrence”.

China, in retaliation to British trade minister Greg Hands’s visit last month, sent a sortie of 46 warplanes toward Taiwan.

Taiwanese foreign minister Joseph Wu suggested in an interview with The Guardian that China is preparing to find another “pretext for practising their future attack” on the island following a record number of military aggressions in 2022.

Apart from building military efforts around the island, Beijing has been using a “combination of pressures”, including economic coercion, cyber attacks and cognitive and legal warfare, to isolate Taiwan.

Last week, China imposed a fresh ban on Taiwanese food and beer imports.