Taiwan reports renewed Chinese military activity, planes in ‘response’ zone
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China held a day of drills around Taiwan in an angry response to brief stop-overs this month in the United States by Vice President William Lai.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TAIPEI – Taiwan’s defence ministry reported renewed Chinese military activity around the island on Friday, including 13 aircraft entering its “response” zone and five ships carrying out combat readiness patrols.
The ministry said that starting at about 7am, it had detected 22 Chinese aircraft – fighters, bombers, early warning aircraft and drones – of which 13 entered Taiwan’s “response” zone, though it did not give details.
Taiwan sent aircraft and ships to monitor them, it said.
Taiwan does not publicise where its “response” zone is, but it keeps closest watch on the Taiwan Strait and the area to the island’s south and south-west where Chinese military activity is often concentrated.
Last Saturday, China held a day of drills around the island in an angry response to brief stopovers in the United States by Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai in August.
China has not announced further drills around Taiwan since then, though it frequently mounts such missions without acknowledging them beforehand or afterwards.
Taiwan’s defence ministry this week said it could not judge whether China’s drills that started last Saturday had formally ended, as Beijing did not make any announcement. China has continued military movements around Taiwan, though on a lesser scale.
The ministry, in a separate statement on Friday morning, said that during the previous 24 hours, it had spotted two Chinese drones near northern Taiwan.
Both crossed the strait’s median line, it said, which had until 2022 served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides but which Chinese aircraft now routinely cross.
One of the drones, identified by the ministry as a BZK-005, crossed the median line opposite Taiwan’s north-west coast, then flew towards the north before flying north-east of the island.
Taiwan has not reported any Chinese military aircraft in its territorial airspace, though it has said planes have come close to the island’s contiguous zone, which is 24 nautical miles off its coast. REUTERS
