President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Friday visited the Air Force Combatant Command to review the air force’s training and exercise operations, the Presidential Office said in a statement yesterday.
It was Tsai’s first publicized visit to an air force facility since Chinese military aircraft were detected near Taiwan’s airspace twice in the past few weeks.
Besides listening to a report by commander Hsiung Hou-chi (熊厚基), Tsai also inspected the command’s air traffic control center and spoke with F-16 pilots on a mission, according to the statement.
Photo: CNA
Tsai praised the command, headquartered in Taipei’s Dazhi District (大直), for its excellent performance in ensuring air superiority in the Taiwan Strait and reaffirmed that “monitoring and protecting the security of the nation’s air space” was the air force’s top priority, the statement said.
Taiwan’s military confirmed that Chinese aircraft have twice circled the nation over the past month, first on Nov. 25 and again on Dec. 10, without entering the country’s air defense identification zone.
Minister of National Defense Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) said the flights were part of military intimidation tactics by China aimed at demonstrating its multi-dimensional capability to invade Taiwan.
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