Daily Mail
Date: 6 October 2020
By:  AFP

Taiwan will not "yield an inch" in defending itself, President Tsai Ing-wen warned Tuesday, as new figures revealed the island is scrambling fighter jets at more than double the rate of last year in response to Chinese incursions.

Authoritarian China views democratic Taiwan as its own territory and has vowed to one day seize it, by force if necessary, even though the island has been self-ruled for the last seven decades.

Taipei's fighters have taken to the skies to ward off Chinese warplanes more than 4,100 times so far this year, making about 22 sorties a day on average, according to the military — 129 percent up on all of 2019.

Naval ships have been dispatched more than 7,500 times, compared with fewer than 6,000 for all of last year, according to a defence ministry report submitted to parliament.