Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng warned on Monday that the island has to be on alert this year for a "sudden entry" by the Chinese military into areas close to its territory amid rising military tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
China has stepped up its military activities around Taiwan in recent years, including almost daily air force incursions into the island's air defense identification zone.
However, Taiwan has not reported any incident of Chinese forces entering its contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles (44.4 kilometers) from its coast. But it did shoot down a civilian drone that entered its airspace near an islet off the Chinese coast last year.