A Chinese military aircraft flew east of Taiwan on Saturday morning as part of a long-distance training mission, the Ministry of National Defense confirmed yesterday.
It was the first time a Chinese military aircraft was confirmed to have flown near Taiwan since the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress in Beijing concluded on Oct. 24.
The ministry said that a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Tu-154MD electronic intelligence aircraft flew northbound over Japan’s Miyako Strait.
The Miyako Strait, which lies between Miyako and Okinawa islands, is part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone, but includes a narrow band of international waters and airspace. The area is close to Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
The ministry said that it “closely monitored the maneuvers by Chinese military planes in accordance with regulations” and it continues to safeguard the nation’s air defense identification zone.
PLA aircraft and vessels have several times flown and sailed near southern Taiwan and into the Western Pacific Ocean via the Miyako Strait, which the government views as aggressive moves.
Saturday’s incident was the 10th time a PLA aircraft has flown near Taiwan’s waters since July.
According to previous Chinese media reports, Tu-154MD aircraft were modified from Russian Tu-154M “Careless” transports by adding radomes — weatherproof enclosures that protect radar systems or antennae and conceal them from view— and antennae to provide basic electronic warfare capability.
The PLA has at least four Tu-154MDs, all listed under PLA Air Force’s 34th Division of the 102nd Air Regiment based at Nan Yuan airfield south of Beijing, reports said.
Chieh Chung (揭仲), a senior assistant research fellow at the National Policy Foundation, a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) affiliated think tank, yesterday said that the Chinese aircraft spotted on Saturday could have been collecting intelligence on the nation’s military.
The ongoing search for the Mirage 2000 fighter jet that disappeared over the sea off northeastern Taiwan on Nov. 7 requires all kinds of communications between various Taiwanese military aircraft and vessels, Chieh said.
Although the PLA aircraft appeared to be on a training mission, the possibility that it was using the opportunity to collect intelligence on the operating parameters of Taiwanese military aircraft and vessels could not be ruled out, he said.
The Mirage 2000, piloted by Captain Ho Tzu-yu (何子雨), was on a regular nighttime training exercise before losing contact with the control tower about 34 minutes after it took off from its base in Hsinchu when it was about 90 nautical miles (166.7km) north-northeast of Keelung, the ministry has said.
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