More than 30 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the course of about six hours, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday in a rare, second morning update.
From 5am yesterday, “a total of 37 Chinese military aircraft” entered Taiwan’s southwestern ADIZ, ministry spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said.
“Some continued ... toward the western Pacific for long-range reconnaissance training,” Sun said at about 11am.
Photo: REUTERS
They included J-11 and J-16 fighters, Xian H-6 bombers, YU-20 tanker aircraft, and airborne early warning and control system aircraft, the ministry wrote on Twitter.
While not the largest number of incursions this year — which was 45 sorties on April 9 — yesterday’s surge occurred over a much more compressed time frame.
The military is “monitoring the situation closely,” the ministry wrote, adding that patrol planes, naval vessels and land-based missile systems had been dispatched.
The announcement followed a regular morning update on Chinese People’s Liberation Army activity near Taiwan, which said that 12 aircraft — one of which crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait — and four navy vessels were detected in the 24 hours ending at 5am yesterday.
The incursions came a day after the US, the Philippines and Japan completed their first-ever joint coast guard drills in the South China Sea.
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