Chinese military incursions in Taiwan Strait lessen after record week

Beijing, Sep 26 (EFE).- Taiwan’s Defense Ministry detected seven Chinese planes and five warships in the vicinity of the island in the last few hours, a decreasing military presence in the area compared to previous weeks.

In a first part, the military ministry reported Tuesday that two of the aircraft entered the Air Identification Zone of Taiwan from the southeast and southwest.

In a subsequent statement, the ministry reported the detection of an undetermined number of aircraft that crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait or entered the zone from the north and southwest, as well as ships that “carried out joint combat patrols.”

In both cases, the Taiwanese Armed Forces “have monitored the situation and ordered aircraft, ships and ground-based missile systems to respond to these activities,” the department added.

The median line is an unofficial demarcation tacitly accepted by Taipei and Beijing in recent decades but which Chinese fighters have been accustomed to exceeding for a year in their raids, which have become routine in recent months.

The figures for the last four days have been significantly lower than those of the previous days, when Taipei reported a record number of incursions by the Chinese Army, its peak at 103 aircraft and nine ships on Sep.18.

Taiwan – where China’s nationalist army retreated after defeat by communist troops in the civil war – has been governed autonomously since 1949, although China claims sovereignty over the island, which it considers a rebellious province for whose “reunification” has not ruled out the use of force. EFE

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