Taipei, Jan 18 (EFE).- Taiwan’s defense ministry on Thursday announced the presence of a record 24 Chinese warplanes in the vicinity of the island, five days after presidential elections were held.
“24 PLA (Chinese military) aircraft and 5 PLAN (Chinese navy) vessels around Taiwan were detected by 6 am,” the ministry said in its daily report posted on social media platform X.
“11 of detected aircraft had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or entered Taiwan’s southwest and north ADIZ (air defense identification zone),” it added.
Taiwan Strait’s median line is an unofficial boundary tacitly respected by Taipei and Beijing while the Taiwanese ADIZ, which is not defined or regulated by any international treaty, covers a larger area that includes parts of mainland China.
On Wednesday night, the Taiwanese ministry reported an incursion by 18 Chinese aircraft, including Su-30 fighter jets, in its ADIZ, which it said conducted “t combat patrol” with Chinese navy ships.
“The prosperity of the Taiwan Strait region is critical to global development and stability, and is a shared duty and responsibility for all regional ,” the ministry said in a post on X.
“We will continue to strengthen our self-defense capabilities and contribute our part to make it safe,” it added.
The warplane incursions occurred five days after William Lai (also known as Lai Ching-te), leader of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and known for his pro-democracy, anti-China stance, won the presidential elections on the island with 40 percent of the votes.
Since the beginning of the year, the Taiwanese defense ministry has recorded the presence of a total of 166 Chinese aircraft in the vicinity of Taiwan, of which 33 ventured beyond the dividing line of the strait or penetrated the island’s air defense zone.
The daily record was recorded on Sep. 18, when 103 Chinese planes flew over the area around the island.
Taiwan – where the Chinese nationalist army withdrew after being defeated by communist troops in the civil war – has been governed independently since 1949.
However, China claims sovereignty over the island, which it considers a rebellious province and has not ruled out the use of force for “reunification” with it. EFE
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