Taipei (Taiwan) | AFP
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said it detected 28 Chinese fighter jets near the island this Sunday (17). Many of the planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait that separates the island from the mainland on unspecified “longrange missions.”
The country lives under the constant threat of invasion from China, which views the island as a province that has not managed to reunite with the rest of its territory since 1949, the end of the Chinese Civil War.
The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense assured that 20 of the aircraft detected this Sunday morning crossed the median line of the strait and entered the air defense identification zone in the southeast and southwest of the island.
China is conducting “missions such as exercises and longrange training,” the agency said in a statement, adding that the country was monitoring the situation with patrol planes and boats.
Taipei reported a surge in incursions by Chinese military planes and ships last week after Beijing said its troops were on “high alert” after two ships from the United States and Canada passed through the Taiwan Strait this month.
According to the Taiwanese government, 68 Chinese aircraft and 10 warships were discovered around the island between Wednesday morning (13) and Thursday (14).
Some of the aircraft and warships are en route to an unspecified area in the Western Pacific to “conduct joint sea and air exercises” with the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong, the ministry said.
When contacted, the Chinese government did not comment on the exercises in the Western Pacific.