Thirty-seven Chinese military jets have raided Taiwan’s suburbs in recent hours, the island’s defense ministry said on its Twitter account.
The ministry explained that the 37 aircraft entering the island’s Air Identification Zone (AIZ) from the southwest included J-10 and J-11 fighters, H-6 bombers and YU-20 transport and air warning and airborne control.
The publication also states that the Chinese aircraft, which began the raids at 5 a.m. local time (9 p.m. Wednesday in Lisbon), were conducting “long-range aerial reconnaissance training.”
Taiwanese forces also stated that “several aircraft” continued their passage to the Pacific via the southeastern part of the island’s ZIA.
The island’s air force “watched the situation” with combat air and naval patrols, as well as land-based missile systems.
Incursions by Chinese People’s Liberation Army military aircraft into Taiwan’s ZIA increased significantly from late 2021 and became more frequent following the trip of then-Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to the island in the summer of 2022.
Beijing recently accused the US of “looking for trouble” and defended the maneuver of a Chinese military vessel just 137 meters from a US destroyer in the Taiwan Strait that occurred Saturday, an action Washington called “unsafe.”
The United States claimed the destroyer was in international waters when the incident occurred on Saturday, while Beijing claimed it was in its territorial waters.
China is pushing for the “reunification” of the People’s Republic with the island, which has self-governed itself since the Kuomintang nationalists retreated to the island in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists while undermining the regime of the Republic of China. which culminated in the transition to democracy in the 1990s.
Source: DN
