Taiwan activated its defense systems after reporting 37 Chinese military aircraft flying in the island's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), some of which ended up in the western Pacific. The Defense Ministry, reporting on the latest mass incursion by the People's Liberation Army air force, said that by 5 a.m. (Wednesday 23 in Italy) it detected 37 Chinese military aircraft, including J-11 and J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, in the southwest corner of its Adiz.
China considers Taiwan as an "inalienable" part of its territory and the island issue has become one of the reasons for renewed tension between Beijing and Washington. On Saturday, a Chinese warship came close to colliding, just over 100 meters
from the American destroyer Us Chung-Hoon, engaged in a joint Canada-US activity on freedom of navigation through the Taiwan Strait.
According to a reconstruction of the facts, the Chinese unit set course to cut the bow of the US destroyer whose crew advised
via radio to change course to avoid the collision. Montreal commander Captain Paul Mountford called the move unprofessional and the incident "clearly instigated by the Chinese. The fact that this had been announced on the radio before doing so, clearly indicated that it was intentional."