Taiwan said it scrambled fighters and deployed anti-missile systems Monday after Chinese military jets entered its air defence zone for the fourth time in five days.

Two Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine planes intruded into Taiwan's southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ), the defence ministry said.

Last week, Chinese fighters and bombers breached the same zone three times -- twice while a high-ranking US diplomat was on a rare trip to the self-ruled island that sparked anger in Beijing.

Washington has sent two envoys to Taipei in as many months, infuriating Beijing, which considers the self-ruled island as part of its territory, to be absorbed into the mainland -- by force if necessary.

Taipei's defence ministry said that Taiwan maintains "the right to self-defence and counter attack" in the wake of the "frequent harassments and threats."

"Our primary principle is not to provoke, not to heighten conflicts, trigger incidents or cause misfire," defence minister Yen De-fa told reporters.

"But we are not afraid of a war and we must maintain our necessary right to self-defence and counter attack."

Beijing has ramped up diplomatic, economic and military pressure on Taiwan since the 2016 election of President Tsai Ing-wen, who rejects its view that the island is part of "one China".

Washington's increased outreach to Taiwan under President Donald Trump has become yet another flashpoint with China as the countries clash over a range of issues of trade and security issues, as well as the coronavirus pandemic.

Chinese propaganda video shows bombers attacking what looks like Guam
Washington DC (UPI) Sep 21, 2020 - A new Chinese propaganda video borrows heavily from Hollywood and depicts an airstrike on an island some observers say resembles the U.S. base in Guam.

The two-minute production, released on Saturday by the Chinese People's Liberation Army on social media, depicts Chinese H-6 long-range bombers traveling over the Pacific Ocean. As dramatic music soars, a missile is fired at an unnamed island, prompting an explosion at the target.

The video offers no narration, but some observers noted that the pattern of aircraft landing strips on the attacked island resembles that of the U. S. air base on Guam, the South China Morning Post reported on Sunday.

The presentation suggests that it was produced as a warning to any country of base within the strike range of the bombers.

"The messages put out by the People's Republic of China propaganda machine threaten anyone who opposes China or the Communist Party," Drew Thompson, former U.S. Defense Department analyst said. He added that the video footage "warns that the PLA is prepared to use force to settle differences."

In 2019, China test fired a DF-26 ballistic missile, which has a range of 3,400 miles and has the capacity to strike U.S. military installations on Guam.

The video production does not identify the island being struck by the missile. It does, however, include brief scenes from Hollywood films. Footage is borrowed from "Transformers: Revenge of the Falcon," involving an attack on the U.S. air base at Diego Garcia, and "The Rock," an action film in which Alcatraz Island, in San Francisco Bay, is the target of a missile.

An unidentified source close to the PLA told the South China Morning Post that the Army's publicity department often borrows scenes from Hollywood films to make its propaganda look more spectacular.

"Almost all of the officers in the department grew up watching Hollywood movies, so in their minds, American war films have the coolest images," the source said.

China has recently increased its efforts on matters involving contested islands in the South China and East China Seas, and reinforced its demand that Taiwan be re-unified with the mainland country.

It is also building a new aircraft carrier, its third and the first with up-to-date technology.

"The vast capacity that China possesses when it comes to land-based ... cruise missiles and ground-based conventional missiles, and where they are headed with ground-based hypersonic missiles, represents an offensive threat throughout the region that is alarming not only to the United States but to all our allies and partners there as well," Adm. Philip Davidson, head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said on Thursday at a virtual forum of the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance.

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Senior US diplomat wraps up Taiwan visit as China flexes muscle
Taipei (AFP) Sept 19, 2020
A top US diplomat attended the funeral for former Taiwan president Lee Teng-hui Saturday which featured a eulogy by Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama before wrapping up a visit overshadowed by Chinese military exercises. Keith Krach, undersecretary of state for economic growth, energy and the environment, was the highest-ranking State Department official to visit Taiwan since 1979 when Washington switched diplomatic recognition to Beijing. The trip, the second high-ranking US visit in as m ... read more