Taiwan's Defense Ministry says a large Chinese military force has been detected near island

TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China's secretive military appears to be up to something around Taiwan, but it's unclear whether it's a formal military drill.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it has detected a dozen Chinese naval ships and 47 military planes in the past 24 hours but no live-fire activity as in previous military exercises. The deployment covers a wider area this time, with additional ships going beyond Taiwan into other parts of the Pacific, defense officials said at a news conference.

Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng said China’s navy is creating two walls — one at Taiwan's perimeter and another outside the first island chain, which extends south from Japan and through Taiwan to the Philippines. “The message they are sending is very simple: The Taiwan Strait is ours,” he said, referring to the waters between Taiwan and China.

The military has been bracing for possible drills by China in response to a recent overseas trip by Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te that included Hawaii and Guam, an American territory.

China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes the self-governing island having official interactions with other countries, and in particular, the United States. Lai spoke with U.S. congressional leaders by phone while in Guam last week. While the U.S., like most of the world, doesn’t formally recognize Taiwan as a country, it is the largest supplier of arms to the island of 23 million people for its defense.

Without any announcement from China on military drills, Taiwan officials are calling the ongoing activity a training exercise. Hsieh noted that training can become drills, and drills can become war.

“It’s in the status of regular training,” he said. “But under the status of normalized training, it’s able to mobilize military forces on such a large scale and carry out exercises in such a large area.”

China, which views Lai as a separatist, held major military exercises around Taiwan following his inauguration in May and his National Day speech in October. It also held a major drill after Nancy Pelosi, then the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, visited Taiwan in 2022.

Taiwan's military set up an emergency response center on Monday in response to the increased Chinese naval activity and the announcement of flight restrictions in seven zones off China's east coast. The restrictions are in place until Wednesday.

“We have noticed that there are no live-fire drill activities in the seven exercise areas as planned in the past," said Hsieh, who heads the office of the deputy chief of general staff for intelligence.

Taiwan army ground force members ride on vehicles at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Taiwan's fighter jets prepare to take off at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A Taiwan's fighter jet lands at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

In this image made from a video, Taiwanese Lt. Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng speaks during a press conference at the Ministry of National Defense in Taipei, Taiwan Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024. (AP Photo/Wu Taijing)

Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jets prepare to take off at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to take off at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jets sit on the tarmac at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jet takes off at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

A Taiwan's Mirage 2000 fighter jet prepares to take off at an airbase in Hsinchu, northern Taiwan, Tuesday, Dec. 10, 2024, as Taiwan's Defense Ministry said it detected Chinese naval ships and military planes engaged in training. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying)

FILE - A Taiwan national flag flutters near the Taipei 101 building at the National Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, May 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying, File)

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman by an immigration officer, Minnesota's Twin Cities on Sunday braced for what many expect will be a new normal over the next few weeks as the Department of Homeland Security carries out what it called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In one Minneapolis neighborhood filled with single-family homes, protesters confronted federal agents and attempted to disrupt their operations by blowing car horns and whistles and banging on drums.

There was some pushing and several people were hit with chemical spray just before agents banged down the door of one home on Sunday. They later took one person away in handcuffs.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring and gathering information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said on Sunday that the investigation into shooting death of Renee Good shouldn’t be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith both said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiassed investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem dismissed complaints from Minnesota officials about local agencies being denied any participation in the investigation during an interview with CNN.

“We do work with locals when they work with us,” she said, criticizing the Minneapolis mayor and others for not assisting Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations.

Frey and Noem each pointed fingers at the other for their rhetoric after Good's killing, and each pushed their own firm conclusions about what video of the incident shows. The mayor stood by his assertions that videos show “a federal agent recklessly abusing power that ended up in somebody’s dying.”

“Let’s have the investigation in the hands of someone that isn’t biased," Frey said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The killing of Good on Wednesday by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests across the country over the weekend.

Thousands of people marched in Minneapolis on Saturday where Homeland Security called its deployment of immigration officers in the Twin Cities its biggest ever immigration enforcement operation.

Associated Press journalists Thomas Strong in Washington, Bill Barrow in Atlanta, and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio, contributed.

Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)

Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)

Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)