Taiwan Says Chinese Planes Crossed Median Line, China Carries Out Landing Drills

 Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)
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Taiwan Says Chinese Planes Crossed Median Line, China Carries Out Landing Drills

 Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)
Members of Taiwan's Navy and media onboard a special operation boat navigate near a Kuang Hua VI-class missile boat, during a drill part of a demonstration for the media, to show combat readiness ahead of the Lunar New Year holidays, on the waters near a military base in Kaohsiung, Taiwan January 31, 2024. (Reuters)

Taiwan's defense ministry said on Friday it had detected a renewed incursion by Chinese military aircraft across the sensitive Taiwan Strait, as China reported its navy had carried out combat drills with landing craft.

Over the past four years, China's military has significantly ramped up its activities around democratically-governed Taiwan. Beijing views the island as its own territory, a position the government in Taipei strongly rejects.

The defense ministry, in its daily morning update on Chinese activities in the previous 24 hours, said 14 Chinese military aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line, getting as close as 41 nautical miles (76 km) to the northern Taiwanese port city of Keelung, home to a major navy base.

The median line previously served as an unofficial border between the two sides, but Chinese military aircraft now regularly cross it. China says it does not recognize the line's existence.

Taiwan said on Thursday that China had carried out a "joint combat readiness patrol" near the island for the second time in a week.

China's defense ministry did not answer calls seeking comment on Friday, the country being in the middle of its Labour Day holiday.

On Thursday, the Eastern Theatre Command of China's People's Liberation Army, which is responsible for the area around Taiwan, showed pictures on its WeChat social media account of ships carrying out what it called live combat landing drills.

It did not say when or where exactly the exercises took place, but showed images of ship-mounted guns opening fire and operating in formation.

"The vanguard of the landing team are always ready to fight," it said in text to accompany the pictures.

The island's top security official said on Wednesday that Taiwan is on alert for China to carry out military exercises following the inauguration of President-elect Lai Ching-te later this month.

Taiwan National Security Bureau Director-General Tsai Ming-yen said China had begun using unusual new tactics, including staging nighttime combat patrols and using landing ships and minesweepers in those patrols.

China's coast guard this week has also been carrying out more patrols around the Taiwan-controlled Kinmen islands which sit next to the Chinese coast. The patrols began in February following a dispute about the death of two Chinese nationals who tried fleeing Taiwan's coast guard upon entering prohibited waters.

Chinese state media said Friday's "normal law enforcement inspection" by its coast guard near Kinmen was to help protect fishermen. Taiwan has decried the patrols as an intimidation tactic.

Lai, who is inaugurated on May 20 after winning election in January, is strongly disliked by China which believes him to be a dangerous separatist. China's government has rejected his repeated offers of talks, including one made last week.

Lai, like current President Tsai Ing-wen, rejects Beijing's sovereignty claims; both say only the island's people can decide their future.

Lai has been Taiwan's vice president for the past four years.



A Week after Catastrophic Earthquake, Focus Turns to a Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Myanmar

Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
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A Week after Catastrophic Earthquake, Focus Turns to a Growing Humanitarian Crisis in Myanmar

Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)
Rescue workers look on as heavy machinery clears the rubble at the site of an under-construction building collapse in Bangkok on March 30, 2025, two days after an earthquake struck central Myanmar and Thailand. (Photo by MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP)

Search teams pulled more bodies from the ruins of buildings on Friday, a week after a massive earthquake rocked Myanmar killing more than 3,100 people, as the focus turns toward the urgent humanitarian needs in a country that was already devastated by civil war.

United Nations humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher, who is also the emergency relief coordinator, was to arrive Friday in an effort to spur action following the quake. Ahead of his visit, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to the international community to immediately step up funding for quake victims "to match the scale of this crisis," and he urged unimpeded access to reach those in need.

"The earthquake has supercharged the suffering with the monsoon season just around the corner," he said Thursday.

Myanmar authorities said Thursday that 3,145 people had been killed, with another 4,589 people injured and 221 missing, and did not immediately update the figures on Friday.

Britain, which had already given $13 million to purchase emergency items like food, water and shelter, pledged an additional $6.5 million in funds to match an appeal from Myanmar's Disasters Emergency Committee, according to the UK Embassy in Yangon.

Many international search and rescue teams were also on the scene, and eight medical crews from China, Thailand, Japan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Philippines, Indonesia and Russia were operating in Naypyitaw, according to Myanmar's military-run government. Another five teams from India, Russia, Laos and Nepal and Singapore were helping in the Mandalay region, while teams from Russia, Malaysia and the ASEAN bloc of nations were assisting in the Sagaing region.

The Trump administration has pledged $2 million in emergency aid and sent a three-person team to assess how best to respond given drastic cuts to US foreign assistance.

On Friday, five bodies were recovered from the rubble in the capital Naypyitaw and the second-largest city of Mandalay, near the epicenter of the 7.7 magnitude earthquake March 28, authorities said. The last reported rescue came Wednesday, some 125 hours after the quake struck, when a man was saved from the wreckage of a hotel in Mandalay.

The quake also shook neighboring Thailand, bringing down a high-rise under construction in Bangkok, where recovery work continued Friday. Overall, 22 people have been found dead and 35 injured in Bangkok, primarily from the construction site.

Myanmar´s military seized power in 2021 from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking what has turned into a civil war.

The quake worsened an already dire humanitarian crisis, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.

As concerns grew that ongoing fighting could hamper humanitarian aid efforts, the military declared a temporary ceasefire Wednesday, through April 22. The announcement followed unilateral temporary ceasefires announced by armed resistance groups opposed to military rule.

On Thursday, however, there were renewed airstrikes in Kayah state, also known as Karenni, in eastern Myanmar, according to witnesses.

The military has said that it would still take "necessary" measures against resistance groups, if they use the ceasefire to regroup, train or launch attacks, and the groups have said they reserved the right to defend themselves.