Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te.

Chinese military exercises near Taiwan on Monday were punishment for Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te's continued promotion of "separatism", according to a stern statement out of Beijing, as Taiwan hit back by calling China a troublemaker.

China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring democratically governed Taiwan under its control, has stepped up military and political pressure against the island in recent years.

Taiwan's defence ministry said China had carried out "joint combat readiness patrols" - one in the morning and one in the afternoon - sending 54 Chinese warplanes including J-10 jets and drones to areas near Taiwan.

It said the Chinese aircraft flew in airspace to the north, west, southwest and east of Taiwan, and that Taiwanese air and naval forces were dispatched to keep watch.

Among them, 42 planes crossed the Taiwan Strait's median line, an unofficial buffer between the two sides, the ministry said.

If the Lai administration "dares to provoke and play with fire, it will only bring about its own destruction," a spokesperson for China's Taiwan Affairs Office said in the statement.

Taiwan routinely reports such military activity by China, but China's government very rarely offers comment on them.

Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council said Beijing had continued to threaten the island militarily, raising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and destabilizing regional peace and stability.

The Chinese Communist Party is a "troublemaker" in every sense of the word, the council said, urging ally countries to stop China's military expansion.

Taiwan's security officials have said China was trying to normalise drills near Taiwan, carrying out such patrols near the island every 7-10 days on average.

Lai said last week that China had deepened its influence campaigns and infiltration against the island, pledging measures to tackle Beijing's efforts to "absorb" Taiwan.

China views Taiwan as its territory, a claim rejected by the government in Taipei.

Lai has repeatedly offered talks with Beijing but has been rebuffed. He says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

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Taiwan revokes visa of pro-Beijing Chinese influencer

A Chinese influencer living in Taiwan must leave the island within days or be deported, Taiwanese authorities said, after she posted videos supporting the idea of China taking the island by force.

The rare move comes at a time of heightened cross-strait tensions and increasing suspicions of Chinese influence operations on the democratic island.

Taiwan's National Immigration Agency (NIA), which revoked the influencer's visa, said that her "behaviour advocates the elimination of Taiwan's sovereignty and is not tolerated in Taiwanese society".

The influencer, identified by authorities with her surname Liu, had relocated from mainland China to Taiwan on a dependent visa after marrying a Taiwanese man.

Liu has until 24 March to leave Taiwan before she is forcibly deported, local media reported.

She would not be able to apply for another dependent visa for five years, according to an NIA statement on Saturday.

It is extremely rare for the authorities to expel Chinese spouses of Taiwanese citizens.

Liu, better known on social media as Yaya in Taiwan, regularly posts pro-Beijing commentary videos with her young daughter.

In the videos, Liu refers to the island as "Taiwan province" and echoes China's state narrative that Taiwan is "an inseparable part of China".

China claims the self-governed Taiwan as part of its territory, and has not ruled out the use of force over it. Taiwan, however, sees itself as distinct from China.

"The complete unification of the motherland is a necessity, regardless of what the Taiwanese people want," Liu said in one video on Douyin, the Chinese equivalent of TikTok, where she has 480,000 followers.

"Peaceful unification is much harder than unification by force," she added. "It depends on what choices the Taiwanese people make."

As criticism against her videos mounted, Liu posted on Douyin in February that she "would never back down".

She later said that she was "trying to promote the good on both sides" through her videos and "eliminate the chasm between people".

"I'm just analysing objectively and sharing my own views," she said. "Those pushing for Taiwan independence … are the ones causing real harm to Taiwanese society."

Her remarks have sparked condemnation from Taiwan's leaders, with interior minister Liu Shyh-fang saying that freedom of speech was "not an excuse" to call for the invasion of Taiwan.

Liu is among 360,000 mainland Chinese spouses living in Taiwan, whose activities have been increasingly scrutinised amid heightening cross-strait tensions.

In a slate of measures announced last week to curb Chinese influence and infiltration on the island, Taiwanese president Lai Ching-te called for tighter control of cross-strait exchanges, which he said were seen by China as a way to "create internal divisions" in Taiwan.

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Taiwan protests name change of unofficial embassy on South African government website

Taiwan has protested over the change of name of the island's representative office on a South African government website amid mounting pressure from China.

South Africa's department of international relations and cooperation renamed Taiwan's unofficial embassy from "Taipei Liaison Office" to the "Taipei Commercial Office" on its website, the self-governed island's foreign ministry said on Sunday.

The ministry claimed the office was placed under "international organisations represented in South Africa" instead of an individual entity.

The name change appears to be South Africa’s bid to please China as it tries to cosy up to Beijing following a diplomatic spat with the US under the Donald Trump administration.

South Africa set a deadline of the end of March for Taiwan to change the name of its representative office and relocate the unofficial embassy outside the capital Pretoria. The South African government has sought to downgrade the de facto embassy and recategorise it as a "trade office" based in Johannesburg.

Taiwan at that time claimed the demand "shows China's suppression" against the island and pressure on South Africa to adhere to "One-China policy" was "becoming more serious".

China considers Taiwan a part of its sovereignty and has not ruled out “reuniting” with it by force if necessary despite its split from the mainland in 1949.

Taiwan has lodged protests through its representative office in Pretoria and South Africa's representative office in Taipei, the foreign ministry said. It argued that South Africa's use of “one China” policy to force the office's relocation is “unreasonable, unjustifiable, and unacceptable".

South Africa severed official diplomatic ties with Taiwan in 1997, but allowed Taipei to maintain a symbolic presence through a liaison office in the capital. Taiwan only has formal diplomatic ties with 12 countries, and in Africa it only has a single ally left, Eswatini, which is almost surrounded by South Africa.

Several African nations, including Liberia, Chad, Senegal and Gambia, have severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan over the past decades.

Moving the Taiwan office out of Pretoria “will be a true reflection of the non-political and non-diplomatic nature of the relationship between the Republic of South Africa and Taiwan”, the South African foreign ministry had said in February.

Taiwanese foreign minister Lin Chia-long responded saying his government in retaliation would consider closing South Africa’s liaison office in Taiwan, cutting off a major channel for travel, trade and educational exchange.

China is South Africa's largest trading partner and the nation is looking to expand relations in areas of renewable energy. Both nations are members of the Brics bloc of developing economies.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning earlier said “we appreciate South Africa’s correct decision to relocate the Taipei liaison office in South Africa out of its administrative capital". Mr Mao claimed "Taiwan independence is unpopular and doomed to failure".

China last month reassured South Africa that Beijing will remain a "trustworthy and reliable" friend and partner as the US continues to single out the African nation.

"China and South Africa have always understood and supported each other, carrying out close exchanges, communication and coordination, which demonstrates the high level of bilateral relations," Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi said.

The Trump administration expelled the South African ambassador Ebrahim Rasool for being what secretary of state Marco Rubio claimed "a race-baiting politician".

Mr Rubio accused Mr Rasool of being “a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates [the president of the United States] @POTUS”.

Mr Trump had already issued an executive order cutting all funding to South Africa over some of its domestic and foreign policies. The order criticised the Black-led South African government on multiple fronts, saying it is pursuing anti-white policies at home and supporting “bad actors” in the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.

Mr Trump falsely accused the South African government of a rights violation against white Afrikaner farmers by seizing their land through a new expropriation law.