TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — China’s air force and navy held a second day of large-scale exercises involving fighter jets, bombers and warships in southern and southwestern Taiwan on Wednesday, the Taiwan Defense Ministry said. the island, while Beijing maintains its military pressure.
While China has not commented on the exercises, they are coming less than two weeks before Taiwan holds its own annual drills and as NATO holds a summit where alliance leaders said China challenges their interests, security and values. with its “ambitions and coercive policies”. ”
China, which regards democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has for the past three years regularly sent fighter jets into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, or ADIZ, to try to force the island to accept Chinese sovereignty. .
China staged war games around Taiwan last August and again in April, and has regularly flown military aircraft across the midline of the Taiwan Strait, which had previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that since 7 am (7 pm Tuesday ET) it had detected 30 Chinese aircraft over the sea, including J-10 and J-16 fighters, of which 23 crossed the median line or they entered airspace to the southeast or southwest. of the island.
Chinese air force planes were acting in coordination with their ships to conduct joint training in southern Taiwan, and four Chinese warships were taking part in “combat readiness patrols,” the ministry said.
On Tuesday, the ministry reported similar Chinese activity in the same area, but said 32 Chinese air force planes had entered the island’s ADIZ.
That drill included four nuclear-capable H-6 bombers that flew into southern Taiwan and into the Pacific before returning, according to a map provided by the ministry.
Taiwan sent its planes and ships to monitor Chinese activity on both days, the ministry said.
ADIZ is a larger area that Taiwan monitors and patrols to give its forces more time to respond to threats.
China has not commented on any of its drills that Taiwan has reported over the past month or so.
Last month, Taiwan said eight Chinese warplanes crossed the median line and approached its contiguous zone, which Taiwan defines as 24 nautical miles from its coast.
Taiwan’s territorial space is defined as 12 nautical miles from its coast, although the government has not reported any Chinese aircraft entering the contiguous zone or territorial airspace.
Taiwan’s government rejects China’s claims to sovereignty, saying only the island’s people can decide its future.
