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A fighter jet attached to an aviation brigade of the PLA Air Force soars in the sky during a flight training exercise on June 2, 2024. Photo: eng.chinamil.com.cn

The defense authority of the island of Taiwan has reported consecutive double-digit numbers of Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft operating around the island over the past week. This comes as the mainland intensifies regular drills and patrols amid attempts by "Taiwan independence" secessionists to resist reunification by force.

Some 23 PLA aircraft and seven PLA vessels operating around the island of Taiwan were detected over the past day, the defense authority on the island said in a press release on Monday morning.

Since June 18, when the island's defense authority detected 20 PLA aircraft and seven PLA vessels operating near the island, the number of PLA aircraft has remained in the double digits. 

The PLA regularly conducts exercises and patrols around the island of Taiwan, but recent figures were significantly higher than average compared to the past few years, observers said.

In addition, media reports from the island of Taiwan indicated that a Type 09IV nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine of the PLA Navy surfaced in the Taiwan Straits on June 18.

The PLA's intensified exercises and patrols have come as the US approved military sales of Switchblade 300 and ALTIUS 600M-V Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, as well as equipment and training manuals, to the island of Taiwan at an estimated cost of $360 million.

In a separate event, a senior defense official on the island of Taiwan said that the island's annual Han Kuang exercises, scheduled to start on July 22 this year, will be as close as possible to actual combat, no longer just putting on a show to score points but aiming to simulate real fighting given a rapidly rising "enemy threat" from the Chinese mainland, Reuters reported on Sunday.

The PLA's routine drills and patrols around the island of Taiwan aim to deter "Taiwan independence" secessionists and external interference forces, and enhance combat readiness to defend China's national sovereignty and territorial integrity, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity told the Global Times on Monday.

It is normal for the PLA's exercises and patrols to increase in scale and become closer to real combat scenarios, the expert said.

Purchasing weapons from the US and conducting exercises taking the Chinese mainland as an imaginary enemy are attempts by Taiwan secessionists to resist reunification by force, which are doomed to fail, the expert said, stressing that the PLA has overwhelming advantages over the armed forces on the island, and is prepared to block external military interference, as demonstrated by previous exercises.