The Chinese military has conducted a second round of combat drills around Taiwan this month, with the island’s Defence Ministry reporting it had detected 57 aircraft from the mainlandd.

China views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and has been ramping-up military, political and economic pressure to assert those claims.

The People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command said in a statement that its forces had organised “joint combat readiness patrols and actual combat drills” in the sea and airspace around Taiwan, focused on land strikes and sea assaults.

It said the aim of the exercises was to test joint combat capabilities and “resolutely counter the provocative actions of external forces and Taiwan independence separatist forces”.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said that, over the previous 24 hours before Monday, it had detected 57 Chinese aircraft and four naval vessels operating around the island, including 28 aircraft that flew into Taiwan’s air defence zone across the Taiwan Strait median line. 

In addition to those 28 aircraft that crossed the unofficial buffer between the two sides, including Su-30 and J-16 fighters, two nuclear-capable H-6 bombers flew to the south of Taiwan, according to the ministry.

China carried out similar exercises late last month, with Taiwan reporting 43 Chinese aircraft crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line.