The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense detected 55 Chinese aircraft and 7 warships in the vicinity of the island in the last few hours, a day after reporting a record number of incursions by the Chinese armywith 103 aircraft and nine ships.
The military ministry reported today that the Taiwanese Armed Forces “have monitored the situation and ordered aircraft, ships and land-based missile systems to respond to these activities.”
Of the 55 aircraft, 27 entered the Taiwanese Air Identification Zone (ADIZ) from the southwest, according to the institution, which did not specify whether any of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
The median line is an unofficial demarcation tacitly accepted by Taipei and Beijing in recent decades, but which Chinese fighters have been accustomed to exceeding for a year in their raids, which have become routine in recent months.
The incursions of the last 2 days are added to those carried out last week, when the military portfolio reported on different days around 200 planes and 50 warships coming from the other side of the Strait, which represented an increase in tension that coincides with the recent passage of the Chinese aircraft carrier Shandong through the waters to the east of the territory.
After the record day on Monday, the ministry denounced the “military harassment” from China, warned that the armed forces of Taiwan remain “alert and prepared to face any contingency” and urged Beijing to “assume its responsibility” and “immediately stop this type of unilateral and destructive actions.”
Taiwan – where the Chinese nationalist army retreated after defeat by communist troops in the civil war – has been governed autonomously since 1949, although China claims sovereignty over the island, which it considers a rebellious province for whose “reunification” has not ruled out the use of force.
