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COMMENT | IAN WILLIAMS

Chest-thumping Xi marks regime’s centenary with Taiwan show of force

The Sunday Times

The ink was barely dry on western leaders’ criticism of China’s global behaviour when Beijing gave its contemptuous response — sending 28 aircraft, including fighter jets and nuclear-capable bombers, screaming towards Taiwan.

They crossed into the island’s air defence buffer zone, ignoring radio warnings and forcing Taiwan to scramble its own fighters and ready surface-to-air missiles, before veering off to the south.

Tuesday’s aerial armada was Beijing’s answer to an unprecedented rebuke from the G7 and Nato. It was the largest incursion yet in a campaign of intimidation against Taiwan, a democratic self-governing island that China claims as its own, and it sent tensions across the Taiwan Strait soaring to levels not seen in decades.

A Mao-style cult of personality has Xi Jinping portrayed as a heroic, transformative figure
A Mao-style cult of personality has Xi Jinping portrayed as a heroic, transformative figure
LINTAO ZHANG/GETTY IMAGES

When Nato warned on Monday that China posed “systemic challenges”