On Sunday, Taiwan reported that it warned away 39 Chinese aircraft flying toward the island, in the largest incursion of China's air force in its defense zone since October.
BY MONIQUE BEALS - 01/23/22 11:07 PM EST
The defense ministry said Taiwanese fighters moved quickly to warn away the aircraft, which included 34 fighters, four electronic warfare aircraft and one bomber, according to Reuters.
China claims Taiwan as its own territory, and the island has long complained of Beijing's air force conducting threatening missions near the island.
During the four-day period beginning on Oct. 1, which is a patriotic holiday known as National Day for China, Taiwan said 148 Chinese air force planes flew through its air defense zone. Since then, Taiwan has reported Chinese air force incursions in that air space almost daily, Reuters reported.
Taiwan has called the continued military activities in such close proximity a form of "grey zone" warfare that both tests the island's responses and tires fighters who are repeatedly forced to scramble, Reuters added.
China, which typically characterizes such missions as drills intended to protect the country's sovereignty, did not comment on the most recent flights, Reuters also said.
Taiwan, which is democratically governed, has been the subject of increased pressure from China to accept its sovereignty claims.
Taiwan's government says that, though it desires peace, it will defend itself in the event of an attack.
China flies 39 warplanes towards Taiwan amid tensions (msn.com)
China flies 39 warplanes towards Taiwan amid tensions
By Huizhong Wu, Associated Press 36 mins ago
China flew 39 warplanes toward Taiwan in its largest such sortie of the new year, continuing a pattern that the island has answered by scrambling its own jets in response.
The formation on Sunday night included 24 J-16 fighter jets and 10 J-10 jets, among other support aircraft and electronic warfare aircraft, according to Taiwan’s defence ministry.
Taiwan’s air force scrambled its own jets and tracked the People’s Liberation Army planes on its air defence radar systems, the defence ministry said.
Chinese pilots have been flying towards Taiwan on a near-daily basis in the past year and a half, since Taiwan’s government started publishing the data regularly.
The largest sortie was 56 warplanes on a single day last October.
The activity has generally been in the air space southwest of Taiwan and falls into what Taiwan’s military calls the air defence identification zone, or air space it monitors out of national security considerations.
Taiwan and China split during a civil war in 1949, but China claims the island as its own territory.
As a result, Beijing opposes any action that would identify Taiwan as a sovereign state and has used diplomatic and military means to isolate and intimidate Taiwan.
Tensions have been high since Taiwanese citizens elected Tsai Ing-wen as president in 2016, to which Beijing responded by cutting off previously established communications with the island’s government.
Ms Tsai’s predecessor was friendly to China and had endorsed Beijing’s claim that the two are part of a single Chinese nation.
China flies 39 warplanes towards Taiwan amid tensions (msn.com)
