Taiwan says Chinese air force approached close to island’s coast
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Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that it had detected eight Chinese warplanes that crossed the median line.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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TAIPEI – Eight Chinese warplanes crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line and approached close to the island’s contiguous zone that is 24 nautical miles off its coast on Saturday, the Taiwanese Defence Ministry said, in a further rise in tensions.
China’s air force over the past three years has routinely flown into the airspace around Taiwan.
Beijing claims democratically governed Taiwan as China’s territory. Taiwan’s government rejects the claims and says only the island’s people can decide their future.
In March, Taiwan Defence Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng warned that the island had to be on alert in 2023 for a “sudden entry” by the Chinese military into areas close to its territory.
Taiwan defines its contiguous zone as being 24 nautical miles from its coast. Its territorial space is defined at 12 nautical miles from its coast, though the government has not reported Chinese aircraft entering either the contiguous zone or Taiwan’s territorial airspace.
Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said in a statement that starting around 8am on Saturday, it had detected 19 Chinese warplanes, including J-10 and J-16 fighters. Eight of those crossed the median line and “got close” to the 24-nautical-mile mark, it said.
At the same time, five Chinese warships carried out “joint combat readiness patrols”, the ministry said.
Taiwan sent up its own aircraft and dispatched ships in response and activated land-based missile systems, the ministry said, using standard wording for how its forces react to Chinese incursions.
China’s Defence Ministry did not answer calls seeking comment.
On Saturday, the Chinese military’s Eastern Theatre Command, which covers Taiwan, published pictures on its WeChat account of J-16 fighters taking off on a training mission “far out at sea” that happened “recently”.
The command said the aircraft carried out “tactical long-range flight training” involving in-flight refuelling that covered “thousands of kilometres”. It did not give details.
During China’s last large-scale war games near Taiwan in April, videos of the exercise released by the Eastern Theatre Command showed its vessels and planes coming within 24 nautical miles of Taiwan on all sides of the island.
The Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from its giant neighbour China, is also a frequent site of military activities by the United States, especially by US warships, which transit the sensitive waterway about once a month.
The US Navy in June released a video of what it called an “unsafe interaction” in the strait, in which a Chinese warship crossed in front of a US destroyer.
