APEC over, Taiwan reports renewed Chinese military activity

Taiwan reported renewed Chinese military activity around the island on Sunday, with nine aircraft crossing the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait and warships carrying out "Combat readiness patrols". Democratically-governed Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained for the past four years of regular Chinese military patrols and drills near the island, as Beijing seeks to pressure Taipei over its sovereignty claims. With Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco last week for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, where he met U.S. President Joe Biden, the scale of that military activity around Taiwan had scaled off. Taiwan's defence ministry reported that starting onSunday morning it had detected nine Chinese aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait's median line, which had previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two and which Chinese planes now regularly fly over. China says its activities near Taiwan are aimed at "Collusion" between Taiwan separatists and the United States and to protect China's territorial integrity. Taiwan holds presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 13, with the island's fraught relations with China an important topic on the campaign trail. Over the past year and a half China has staged two large-scale war games around Taiwan, though China's air force has not flown over the island or into its territorial air space.