Taiwan said on Tuesday that China was conducting its largest maritime operations in nearly three decades, sending nearly 90 naval and coast guard vessels into waters stretching from the southern Japanese islands to the South China Sea.

台湾周二表示，中国正在展开近30年来最大规模的海上行动，近90艘海军和海警船只出现在日本列岛以南水域到南中国海之间。

Taiwanese defense officials said the scope of the deployment suggested that China was not only trying to show that it could choke the self-governed island, but also that it could block American allies in the region like Japan and the Philippines from coming to Taiwan’s defense.

台湾国防官员表示，这次行动的规模表明，中国试图展示它不仅有能力全面封控这个自治岛屿，还有能力阻止美国在该地区的盟友（比如日本和菲律宾）前来保护台湾。

China has “extended their military strength outward,” Gen. Hsieh Jih-sheng, a senior official in Taiwan’s ministry of defense told reporters. “The numbers are indeed astonishing,” he said, referring to the surge of Chinese vessels in the waters. Sun Li-fang, a spokesman for Taiwan’s defense ministry, said the maritime operations were the largest that Taiwan has seen since 1996.

中国“兵力向外延伸”，台湾国防部高级官员谢日升中将对记者说。“数字非常惊人，”他指的是台湾周边水域里中国船只的数量激增。台湾国防部发言人孙丽芳说，这是自1996年以来台湾看到的规模最大的海上行动。

The officials said that Taiwan was on high alert in response to the Chinese ships, many of which were in waters off Taiwan’s southwest, east and northwest coasts.

官员们说，大量中国船只位于台湾西南部、东部和西北部水域，作为应对，台湾处于高度戒备状态。

China’s intentions were not immediately clear. There were no official announcements from Beijing that its forces were holding exercises. A foreign ministry spokeswoman, asked on Tuesday if China was conducting drills near Taiwan, deflected the question.

中国的意图目前尚不清楚。中国政府没有正式宣布军队将举行演习。中国外交部发言人周二被问及中国是否正在台湾附近举行军演时，她回避了这个问题。

Speculation had been growing for days that China would launch war games in retaliation for visits made by Lai Ching-te, Taiwan’s president, to Hawaii and the U.S. territory of Guam last week while on his way to the Pacific islands.

连日来，对中国将举行军演的猜测越来越多，人们认为中国会报复台湾总统赖清德上周在前往太平洋岛国访问途中在夏威夷和美国领土关岛停留的做法。

China claims Taiwan, an island democracy, as its territory and opposes formal exchanges between it and countries like the United States. Mr. Lai’s visit to Guam, during which he had a phone call with Speaker Mike Johnson, drew condemnation from Beijing.

中国声称民主自治的台湾是其领土，反对它与美国等国家之间的正式交流。赖清德在关岛与美国众议院议长迈克·约翰逊通了电话，此举遭到了北京的谴责。

Taiwan said that it detected nearly 90 ships in the broader region, two-thirds of which were naval. Officials from the defense ministry said they had detected 47 Chinese warplanes and 12 Chinese naval ships close to the island. Taiwanese national security officials said it took China more than two months to amass all the ships and thousands of Navy soldiers for the operation.

台湾表示，在更广泛的区域内，已发现了近90艘船只，其中三分之二是中国海军船只。台湾国防部官员说，他们在台湾近海的海空中发现了47架中国战斗机和12艘中国海军舰艇。台湾国家安全官员称，中国花了两个多月时间将这些舰艇和数千名海军士兵集结起来参加这次行动。

General Hsieh suggested that China’s silence about the large deployment was aimed at catching the island off guard. Some Taiwanese analysts said that China was taking a muted approach to avoid inflaming tensions with other countries.

谢日升表示，中国对这次大规模行动保持沉默，目的是让台湾措手不及。台湾一些分析人士说，中国对这次行动持低调态度，是为了避免激化与其他国家的紧张关系。

“The purpose is to show its dissatisfaction” with Mr. Lai, “but to avoid an excessive international backlash,” said Su Tzu-yun, a security analyst at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research in Taipei.

“目的是（向赖清德）表示不满，但同时避免过度的国际反弹，”位于台北的国防安全研究院安全分析师苏紫云说。

China has already held two major military exercises since Mr. Lai was inaugurated in May, most recently in October. The war games have simulated encircling Taiwan in an effort to intimidate the island and warn its biggest backer, the United States, not to push Beijing too far. Such exercises add to the pressure China’s military already puts on Taiwan by deploying warplanes and naval ships almost daily to probe and exhaust the island’s defenses.

自从赖清德今年5月上任以来，中国已经举行了两次大型军演，最近一次是在10月。这些演习模拟了封锁台湾的情形，以达到恐吓目的，并警告其最大的支持者美国不要逼中国政府采取行动。中国军队几乎每天出动战机和海军舰艇在台湾附近行动，探测和消耗台湾的防御能力，此类演习进一步加剧了向台湾施加的压力。

The surge in Chinese ships this week could also be a signal to the incoming Trump administration, which has yet to indicate how it will deal with Taiwan. President-elect Donald J. Trump has called for Taiwan to increase its military spending and has complained about the island’s dominance in making semiconductors. But some people he has picked to serve in his administration favor confronting China and offering more support to Taiwan.

中国派往台湾周边水域的船只数量激增，这也可能是向即将上任的特朗普政府发出的信号，后者尚未明确表示将如何处理台湾问题。候任总统特朗普已要求台湾增加军费开支，并抱怨过台湾在半导体制造领域的主导地位。但他提名担任政府官员的一些人赞成与中国对抗，并向台湾提供更多支持。

台湾总统赖清德（中）上个月在檀香山。

While in Hawaii, Mr. Lai met with Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, and delivered a speech about Taiwan’s security at the East-West Center, an education and research nonprofit. Mr. Lai also had a 20-minute phone call with Nancy Pelosi, the former U.S. House speaker. The two discussed China’s growing military threats and Taiwan’s semiconductor industry, said Karen Kuo, Mr. Lai’s spokeswoman.

赖清德路过夏威夷时与该州州长乔希·格林见了面，并在东西方中心发表了关于台湾安全的演讲，该中心是一个从事教育和研究的非营利组织。赖清德还与美国众议院前议长南希·佩洛西通了20分钟的电话。赖清德政府发言人郭雅慧说，他们讨论了中国日益增长的军事威胁和台湾的半导体产业。

Mr. Lai went on to visit the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu and Palau, three Pacific Island nations that are among just a dozen states that maintain diplomatic relations with Taipei rather than Beijing.

赖清德离开夏威夷后访问了马绍尔群岛、图瓦卢以及帕劳这三个太平洋岛国，目前与台北而非北京保持外交关系的国家仅剩12个。

Few issues are more volatile between the United States and China than the status of Taiwan. China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has called “reunification” with the island “inevitable,” and said that Beijing would use force to that end if necessary. Washington, in turn, adheres to the terms of the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979, which obligates the United States to ensure Taiwan can defend itself.

美中之间最敏感的莫过于台湾地位问题。中国最高领导人习近平称大陆与台湾的“统一不可避免”，并表示中国政府在必要时将用武力收复台湾。美国政府则按照1979年的《台湾关系法》行事，该法要求美国确保台湾有自卫能力。

Even though it has been happening for decades, China still objects when the United States sells arms to Taiwan. Last week, it imposed sanctions on more than a dozen U.S. defense firms and several defense industry executives in retaliation for Washington’s approval last month of a $387 million defense package.

尽管美国几十年来一直在对台进行军售，但中国每次都予以反对。上周，中国对十多家美国军工企业和几名企业高管实施了制裁，以报复华盛顿上个月批准了一项总额3.87亿美元的军售计划。

“Buying weapons cannot buy security, and ‘protection fees’ cannot guarantee Taiwan independence,” Chen Binhua, a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said earlier this month.

“买武器买不来安全，‘保护费’保不了‘台独’，”中国台湾事务办公室发言人陈斌华曾在本月早些时候这样说。