2023-09-17 20:01:00
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry said it had detected 28 Chinese warplanes near the island, many of which crossed the midline of the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island from the mainland, on Sunday (17) on unspecified “long-range” missions. .
Taiwan lives under the constant threat of an invasion from China, which considers the island a province that has not yet managed to reunify with the rest of its territory since 1949, at the end of the Chinese civil war.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense assured that 20 of the planes detected this Sunday morning crossed the middle line of the strait and entered the air defense identification zone in the southeast and southwest of the island.
China was carrying out “missions such as exercises and long-range training”, the agency said in a statement, adding that the country was monitoring the situation with patrol aircraft and boats.
Taipei last week reported an increase in the number of incursions by Chinese military planes and ships, after Beijing said its troops were on “high alert” following the passage this month of two ships from the United States and Canada through the Taiwan Strait.
Between the morning of Wednesday (13) and Thursday (14), 68 Chinese aircraft and 10 warships were detected around the island, according to the Taiwanese Ministry of Defense.
Some of the aircraft and warships were heading to an unspecified area of the Western Pacific to “conduct joint maritime and air training” with the Chinese aircraft carrier “Shandong”, the ministry said.
China has not made official comments on the exercises taking place in the Western Pacific.
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