Taiwan denounces a new incursion of 71 Chinese planes and 7 ships

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense yesterday denounced the presence of 71 Chinese planes and 7 military ships in the vicinity of the island, with 47 of the planes arriving to cross the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
26 December 2022 Monday 16:30
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Taiwan denounces a new incursion of 71 Chinese planes and 7 ships

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense yesterday denounced the presence of 71 Chinese planes and 7 military ships in the vicinity of the island, with 47 of the planes arriving to cross the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait.

Among the 47 aircraft of the People's Liberation Army (Chinese Army) that crossed the median line, there were twelve J-11 fighter jets, 18 J-16 fighters and six SU-30 fighters, which crossed the median line between 06:00 a.m. local time on Sunday and 06:00 on Monday. The median line of the Strait of Formosa, which in practice is an unofficial border tacitly respected by Taipei and Beijing in recent decades, has been constantly crossed in recent months by Chinese forces during military exercises.

According to the military ministry, the island's air forces monitored the situation with combat air and naval patrols, and with missile systems on the ground to scare off Chinese planes from the Taiwanese air defense identification zone, which is not defined or regulated. by any international treaty and is not equivalent to its airspace.

For its part, the Chinese army explained yesterday that it organized this Sunday "bombing maneuvers" and "alert patrols" in "sea and air zones around the island of Taiwan."

It was "a decisive response to the recent increase in collusion between Taiwan and the United States," said the spokesman for the Chinese army's eastern theater of operations, Shi Yi, in a statement.

These incursions take place after the United States Congress approved last Friday the so-called National Defense Authorization law, which provides for spending 858,000 million dollars in defense, energy and national security, which includes military aid to Taiwan.

The Chinese Defense Ministry showed on Saturday its "dissatisfaction" with the US decision through its spokesman Tan Kefei, who accused the North American country of "seriously endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" and of " emptying of content the principle of one China”.

In the last two years, the number of raids by Chinese planes and ships has increased, actions that have been condemned by both Taiwan and the United States.

The visit to the territory last August by the speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, deeply irritated the Chinese government, which responded with economic sanctions and with the announcement of military maneuvers in the waters surrounding Taiwan, decisions that brought tension in the Strait to unprecedented levels in decades.

China claims sovereignty over the island and considers Taiwan a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists.

Taiwan, with whom the US does not maintain official relations, is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the US, mainly because Washington is the island's main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally. in the event of a war with the Asian giant.