Declaring that America’s commitment to Taiwan was “rock-solid”, the US has told China that it will continue to watch very closely the “provocative” and “destabilising” Chinese military activities near the self-ruled island.

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said 56 Chinese warplanes made incursions into its air defence identification zone on Monday, the highest number since the island began publicly reporting such activities last year. China views Taiwan as a breakaway province. However, democratic Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state. Beijing has not ruled out the possible use of force to achieve unification with Taiwan.