Since China announced an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) over the East China Sea, there have been 13 sightings of US military aircraft in the zone and 85 instances of Japanese aircraft entering the zone, a senior military official told lawmakers yesterday.
Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence Ke Wen-an (柯文安) made the remarks at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee during which officials were asked to give assessments of the situation following the declaration of the ADIZ on Nov. 23.
The zone includes the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), which are claimed by Taiwan, China and Japan — which calls them the Senkaku Islands. China has demanded that foreign aircraft passing through the zone file flight plans in advance and strictly follow instructions from its air-traffic controllers.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Citing information collected by the military, Ko said China has sent its military aircraft to the area 55 times since it announced the new zone and there were three instances in which the Chinese planes were in close proximity to aircraft from Japan or the US.
The planes were very close to each other, Ko reiterated, when Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) asked whether China had intercepted any foreign aircraft in the zone.
Minister of National Defense Yen Ming (嚴明) told the committee that no Chinese military aircraft have entered Taiwan’s ADIZ since Beijing’s Nov. 23 announcement.
Responding to questions from lawmakers on the committee earlier in the day, Civil Aeronautics Administration Director-General Jean Shen (沈啟) said that aircraft from Taiwan had previously been intercepted by Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force in an area where the two countries’ airspace zones overlap.
In 2002, Japanese defense craft “monitored” a Taiwanese plane testing a new air route designated B591, which stretches from Taipei to northeastern China through the overlapping zones, according to CAA official Margaret Hong (洪美雲).
A similar incident occurred in 2009, she said.
Shen said the area falls between longitude 123? and 124? east.
Japan asked Taiwan to provide flight plans through the overlap starting in 2009, and Taiwan has complied, she said.
However, Japanese self-defense planes have intercepted Taiwanese civil aircraft in the region, which “poses a great danger” to Taiwan’s flight control, she said.
Hsiao said interference from Japanese fighter planes can seriously impact the safety of Taiwan’s civil aircraft on normal flight routes.
Hong told reporters after the hearing that “interception” is a military term meaning that the Japanese fighter was dispatched to “learn about the situation” and she did not know how close the two planes had come to one another.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS