Chinese military aircraft yesterday flew over the East China Sea to the south of Japan’s Okinawa Island and circled the international airspace surrounding Taiwan before passing over the Bashi Channel to return to China, officials from the Ministry of National Defense said.
It was the second time in two weeks that Chinese military aircraft have flown around Taiwan and passed over the Miyako Strait between Japan’s Okinawa and Miyako islands.
Yesterday’s flight launched at about 9am from the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force’s Eastern Theater Command bases and involved a dozen aircraft, the ministry said in a statement, adding that only four aircraft traveled the entire flight path around Taiwan.
Photo: (Shao Jing/Xinhua via AP)
Ministry officials did not provide any details on the type of aircraft that participated in the flight.
Two Xian H-6K bombers, a Tupolev Tu-154 surveillance aircraft and a Shaanxi Y-8 tactical transport aircraft participated in the previous flight on Nov. 25.
The aircraft taking part in yesterday’s flight were reportedly escorted by several Su-30 fighter jets coming in from the north as they crossed the Miyako Strait as per the PLA Air Force’s procedure for flying past the first island chain, before the main group turned south into international airspace.
They were similarly escorted after reaching airspace south of Taiwan as they flew over the Bashi Channel between Taiwan and the Philippines, before ending the mission and returning to their bases at 1:10pm, according to military sources.
The ministry said that the aircraft flew clockwise around Taiwan, whereas they flew counter-clockwise on Nov. 25.
"Our military forces monitored the PLA aircraft and had them under surveillance the entire time. There is no need to be concerned about the situation,” the statement read.
“After the PLA aircraft headed from the Chinese coast toward the East China Sea, Taiwan’s military radar stations locked onto them and tracked the entire flight,” said a senior military officer who declined to be named.
“The air force dispatched a reconnaissance patrol aircraft for surveillance and it took photographs of the Chinese aircraft and transmitted the images to a command station,” he said.
The ministry released the statement immediately after the incident. Following the Nov. 25 flight, the ministry’s delayed response drew criticism from the public and lawmakers, and raised concern that it had sought to cover up the incident.
Media reports said that neither flight infringed upon Taiwan’s or Japan’s territorial airspace, but this could not be independently verified.
Senior Chinese military officials in September announced that they will conduct “regular exercises” for flying past the first island chain, as China seeks to assert its presence in disputed islands and marine territories in the South and East China seas.
Taiwan has virtually identical claims in the South China Sea.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS