Politics

Taiwan reports incursion by 37 Chinese military aircraft

Beijing, June 8 (EFE).- Taiwan activated its defense systems Thursday after 37 Chinese military aircraft flew into the island’s air defense zone, Taiwan’s defense ministry reported.

Starting at 5:00 am, Taiwanese military authorities detected 37 Chinese air force planes, including J-16 and J-11 fighters, H-6 bombers and YU-20 transport planes, flying into its air defense identification zone, or ADIZ.

“Several aircraft entered the western Pacific through Taiwan’s SE airspace for long-range aerial reconnaissance training,” the report added.

“R.O.C. Armed Forces monitoring the situation closely with our ISR system and have dispatched CAP aircraft, naval vessels, and land-based missile systems in response,” the defense ministry added.

In the last two years, Chinese military airplanes have made numerous incursions across the Taiwanese ADIZ, aggravating at a time when tensions between the two territories have worsened.

Incursions from China’s People’s Liberation Army into Taiwan’s ADIZ became more frequent following the trip to Taiwan of then-speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, in the summer of 2022.

Beijing recently accused the US of “seeking trouble” and defended that a Chinese military ship maneuvered last Saturday just 137 meters from a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait, an action that Washington described as “unsafe.”

The US maintained that the destroyer was in international waters when the incident occurred, while Beijing insisted that it was in its territorial waters.

Taiwan has been considered a sovereign territory with its own government and political system under the name of the Republic of China since the end of the civil war between nationalists and communists in 1949, but Beijing maintains it is a rebel province and insists on reunification.

The island is also one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the US mainly because Washington is Taiwan’s main arms supplier and would be its greatest military ally in the event of a possible war with China. EFE

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