2️⃣ *China is deploying dozens of ships in its biggest maritime mobilisation around Taiwan* in years, Taipei has said, after Beijing voiced fury at President Lai Ching-te's recent visit to the United States. 🇹🇼 🇨🇳 *Taiwanese forces were on high alert* in anticipation of *Beijing's People's Liberation Army (PLA) staging war games* in response to Lai's US stopovers and call with Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson. Taiwan's defence ministry said *the number of Chinese ships in the waters around the island exceeded Beijing's maritime response* to then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taipei in 2022, which was the largest-ever war games. *Nearly 90 Chinese naval and coast guard ships were currently in waters* along the so-called first island chain, which links Okinawa, Taiwan and the Philippines, a senior Taiwanese security official told AFP.