The Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) Eastern Theater Command is holding live-fire drills along China’s southeastern coast, the Ministry of National Defense said in a statement yesterday.
China has demarcated several no-sail zones in the Taiwan Strait for the drills in waters off Zhejiang and Fuzhou, generally close to its own coastline, the ministry said.
Taiwan’s armed forces are closely monitoring the situation using their joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems, and have deployed appropriate forces in response, it said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Web site of the Chinese Ministry of National Defense
Meanwhile, the ministry said in a separate statement at 11:30am that it had detected 20 PLA aircraft near Taiwan since 8:50am.
The aircraft — J-11 fighter jets, Y-8 transport aircraft and drones — were operating in conjunction with PLA ships on a routine “joint combat readiness patrol,” the ministry said.
Thirteen of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension and entered the northern, central, and southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, it said.
Taiwan’s military kept close tabs on the PLA movements and deployed combat readiness patrol aircraft, vessels and coastal missile defense systems in response, it said.
An air defense identification zone is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but is not part of its territorial airspace as defined by international law.
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