China on Sunday sent 39 warplanes — mostly fighter jets — into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), in its second-largest single-day incursion, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Thirteen warplanes entered the zone yesterday, it added.
The ministry late on Sunday said that the air force scrambled aircraft to broadcast warnings and deployed air-defense missile systems.
Photo: AP
The Chinese warplanes included 24 J-16 fighters — which experts say are among China’s favorite jets for testing Taiwan’s air defenses — 10 J-10s and one nuclear-capable H-6 bomber.
Yesterday’s incursion included eight J-16s and two J-16Ds — a jet introduced at an air show last year that is capable of neutralizing radar and communication systems, the ministry said.
On Oct. 4 last year, 56 aircraft entered the zone, the largest single-day incursion since the military began releasing such data in September 2020.
Last year, the ministry recorded 969 incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan’s ADIZ, a database compiled by Agence France-Presse showed — more than double the number from 2020.
Yesterday, defense expert Lin Ying-yu (林穎佑) said that Beijing was trying to show its military might to world powers Japan and the US, which over the weekend concluded a round of drills off Okinawa.
Chieh Chung (揭仲), an associate research fellow at the National Policy Foundation in Taipei, agreed, saying that the incursions did not pose a serious threat to Taiwan’s security, but were intended to show Tokyo and Washington that Beijing would not back down from a show of force.
The incursions were also far away from Okinawa to ensure that China gets its message across without sparking a conflict, he said.
The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force conducted joint exercises with the US Navy south of Okinawa from Monday last week to Saturday, NHK reported.
The latest joint exercise was apparently aimed at displaying their solid ties amid China’s increasing maritime activities, reports said.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said in an interview with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s podcast The Bigger Picture that the international community should be vigilant of China as it seeks to expand its global influence.
Amid China’s nearly 1,000 incursions last year, Beijing continued to suppress Taiwan’s international presence, a ministry statement quoted Wu as saying.
China’s ambition apparently does not stop at Taiwan, Wu added, citing as an example the presence of Chinese surveillance ships near US-Australian military exercises in July last year.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
RSS