Taiwan conducts air drill amid China pressure

Taiwan's military held a drill with aircraft, ships and air defense missile systems, its Defense Ministry said on Thursday, ahead of a trip by President Lai Ching-te to the Pacific.

The air drill was conducted for over two hours, starting from 5am, local time, Taiwan's air force command said in a statement, DW reports. The statement described the drill as a "battle plan exercise" that would "strengthen the overall effectiveness of air defence operations and to test the response and engagement procedures of the air defense forces."

China claims Taiwan as its own territory and regularly deploys fighter jets, drones and warships around the democratically-ruled island in a bid to keep up military pressure.

Taiwan has also complained of China flying balloons near the island as part of what it calls a pattern of harassment by Beijing.

On Thursday, Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported that it had detected two Chinese balloons over waters north of the island.

The balloons were sighted in two locations on Wednesday afternoon about 111km northwest and 163km north of the port city of Keelung, the ministry said.

Earlier, on Sunday, Taiwan also reported a Chinese balloon over the same waters. Thirteen Chinese military planes and seven navy vessels were also spotted around the island in the 24 hours to 6:00am on Thursday, the ministry added.

Lai - who is called a "separatist" by China - is slated to leave on Saturday for a tour of Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau.

The three nations are the only Pacific islands among TaipeI's 12 remaining allies. The Taiwanese leader will stop over in Hawaii and the US territory of Guam during the trip, his office said on Thursday.

The trip is aimed at bolstering Taipei's waning number of diplomatic allies and is likely to anger Beijing, which denounces any efforts to give Taiwan international legitimacy.

Lai's presidential office said on Wednesday that if China were to use the president's trip as an excuse to launch military exercises, "it would be a blatant provocation of the status quo of peace and stability in the region."

Meanwhile, China said on Wednesday that stopovers like these were "essentially provocative acts that violate the one-China principle."