Taiwan's Air Defenses Are Activated After Dozens Of Chinese Military Planes Flew Near The Hill Island

Taiwan activated its defense systems on Thursday after spotting dozens of Chinese warplanes in the island’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).

As of 5 a.m. local time, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry spotted 37 Chinese Air Force aircraft, including J-11 and J-16 fighter jets, H-6 bombers, YU-20 military transport planes and AWACS surveillance aircraft, in the island’s southwestern airspace. Officials tweeted.

Several of the Chinese planes flew through Taiwan’s southeastern ADIZ — an area that Taipei monitors and patrols — before flying to the western Pacific to “conduct long-range aerial reconnaissance exercises,” the ministry noted.

Taiwan’s military has been monitoring the situation and has dispatched its own aircraft, naval vessels and land-based missile systems “to respond to these activities,” the independent island’s statement said.

Meanwhile, Beijing has not commented on the flights.

China, which regards Taiwan as its own territory and is threatening to take control of it by force, has regularly flown its warplanes in the skies surrounding the island for the past three years.

Though Beijing’s planes have stayed out of Taiwan’s territorial airspace, China has also held major wartime maneuvers around the island, including the most recent in April following a visit to the United States by Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen.

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The flights to China on Thursday are likely related to a visit by American Institute in Taiwan chair Laura Rosenberger to Taiwan this week. The institute handles unofficial relations between Washington and Taipei.

Also, Beijing recently launched aggressive new measures across the Taiwan Strait, overtaking a US destroyer in an almost unprecedented maneuver last week.

The incident has escalated Beijing’s routine harassment of the international waterway at a low point in Beijing-Washington diplomatic relations.