Taiwan’s top military official said Thursday that Taipei will not start a kinetic war with China as tensions in the region intensify after Beijing recently launched record numbers of military aircraft towards the island.

Chiu Kuo-cheng said Taiwan "absolutely will not start a war," according to Reuters.

China claims Taiwan as its own, and controlling the island is a key component of Beijing’s political and military thinking.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told CNBC Wednesday at an energy conference that China doesn’t need to use its military to achieve its goal regarding Taiwan

"China is a huge powerful economy, and in terms of purchasing parity, China is the economy number one in the world ahead of the United States now," Putin said, according to the network