Taiwan denounces one of the largest incursions by Chinese planes in its air defense zone

Taiwan on Monday denounced one of the largest incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defense zone, the Taiwanese central news agency CNA reported.

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense reported the presence of 71 airplanes and five military ships of the People's Liberation Army (the Chinese Army) in a period of 24 hours in the vicinity of the island and condemned that up to 47 war machines have crossed the median dividing line. of the Strait of Formosa, the unofficial border between the Chinese mainland and the island.

In recent decades, both Taipei and Beijing had respected that tacitly recognized boundary.

However, since tensions increased between the two parties following the controversial visit to Taiwan in August by the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi,

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense assured this Monday that the 47 planes of the People's Liberation Army crossed the median dividing line between 06:00 local time on Sunday (23:00 on Saturday, in mainland Spain) and 06:00 on Monday.

Among the aircraft that carried out the incursions were more than thirty J-10, J-11 and J-16 combat planes, six SU-30 fighters, two Y-8 maritime patrol planes, an early warning plane KJ- 500, as well as a CH-4 and a WZ-7 military drone.

According to the Taiwanese military ministry, its military monitored the situation and responded with naval and combat air patrols and ground-based missile systems to scare off Chinese planes from the Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). ).

The ADIZ includes an area larger than the airspace of Taiwan and is not defined or regulated by any international treaty.

Taipei has shown strong opposition to Beijing's frequent military exercises around Taiwan, which it says "are destroying regional peace and are an attempt to intimidate."

China considers the self-governing island an inalienable part of its territory and has expressed on multiple occasions that it does not rule out the use of force for reunification, which, in its view, is "inevitable."

The visit to the island last August by the third US authority deeply irritated the Chinese government, which responded with economic sanctions and the announcement of unprecedented military maneuvers in the waters surrounding Taiwan.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's office reported that the leader will convene a high-level national security meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss strengthening the island's civil defense system.

In addition, the Ministry of Defense has reported that it is considering extending conscription beyond four months: “The more preparations we make, the less likely there will be rash attempts at aggression.

The more united we are, the stronger and more secure Taiwan will be," Tsai said at a military ceremony on Monday.

China, for its part, reported that on Sunday it organized "attack maneuvers" and "alert patrols" in sea and air zones around Taiwan in response to what it described as a provocation by Taipei and Washington.

“This is a decisive response to the recent increase in collusion between Taiwan and the United States,” Shi Yi, a spokesman for the Chinese Army's Eastern Operations Command, said in a statement.

US military aid

The incursions of the Chinese Army occur after the United States Congress approved last Friday the so-called National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides for an expenditure of 858,000 million dollars (about 808,000 million euros) in defense, energy and national security, which includes military aid to Taiwan.

On Sunday night, the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement that “cooperation between Taiwan and the United States will help safeguard a free, open and stable Indo-Pacific region.

The Army will continue to reinforce military preparation based on enemy threats and self-defense needs."

The Chinese Ministry of Defense had already shown its dissatisfaction with this decision by the US Administration on Saturday.

The spokesman, Tan Kefei, accused the North American country of "seriously endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" and of "emptying the

principle of content ."

Bilateral ties between China and the rest of the countries are governed by the

concept , an expression that implies that there is only one China, and that this includes Taiwan, where in 1949 the nationalist troops defeated by the communist army took refuge in the civil war.

The Taiwan issue is one of the issues that generates the most disagreements and tensions between the two largest economic powers on the planet.

Despite the fact that the island does not maintain official relations with the United States, Washington is its main supplier of arms and would be its greatest military ally in the event of a war with the Asian giant.

In November, during the first face-to-face meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden, held on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Indonesia, both leaders spoke at length about this issue “open and candid,” as Biden described it.

Then, the American leader questioned an imminent invasion of the island by China.

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Why is Taiwan key to world security?

Taiwanese flags at Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense in Taipei. Photo: Reuters |

Video: EPV

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