Taiwan's risk alert up as China sends large naval fleet to region

Taipei says scale of deployment, which includes coast guard vessels, largest since 1996

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TAIPEI - China is deploying its largest navy fleet in regional waters in nearly three decades, posing a threat to Taiwan that is more pronounced than previous Chinese war games, the Taiwanese Defence Ministry said on Dec 10.

Taiwanese Defence Ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang said the scale of the current Chinese naval deployment in an area running from the southern Japanese islands down into the South China Sea was the largest since Beijing held war games around Taiwan ahead of the island's 1996 presidential elections.

China, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, had been expected to launch drills to express its anger at Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's tour of the Pacific that ended on Dec 6, which included stopovers in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam.

Taiwan's military raised its alert level on Dec 9 after saying China reserved airspace, and deployed naval and coast guard vessels.