President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday vowed to continue to strengthen the nation’s defenses, as China sent the year’s biggest batch of warplanes near Taiwan to join drills with its Shandong aircraft carrier in the western Pacific.
“The Chinese Communists’ threat to regional stability continues to rise, and its gray zone intrusions into the Taiwan Strait and surrounding areas are also increasing day by day, which are a challenge to global democracy,” Lai told military officers in Taipei.
A total of 56 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it between 5am on Wednesday and 6am yesterday, the Ministry of National Defense said.
Photo courtesy of the Coast Guard Administration
The planes flew into the northern, southeastern and southwestern parts of the nation’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), it said.
They were part of a larger fleet of 66 Chinese aircraft detected around Taiwan en route to join the Shandong, it added.
Of the 56 aircraft, some flew as close as 33 nautical miles (61km) from Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) on Taiwan’s southernmost tip, flight paths released by the ministry showed.
As of Wednesday morning, the Shandong had transited through the Balintang Channel north of the Philippines, the ministry said.
The Chinese military exercises coincide with a NATO summit in Washington.
Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the state-run Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that some of the flight paths were unusual.
He was referring to 26 aircraft that flew southwest to northeast through the southeastern ADIZ before again changing direction and leaving the area.
The flight path was unusual, as Balintang Channel is southeast of Taiwan, he said.
The planes likely took this unusual path deliberately, in response to the inauguration of American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene earlier this week and his scheduled meeting with Lai on Wednesday, Su said.
A Japanese destroyer also made a rare entry into China’s territorial waters near Taiwan this month without notifying China, sparking “serious concerns” from Beijing, Japanese media reported on Wednesday.
Also yesterday, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said it shadowed four China Coast Guard vessels that intruded into Taiwan-controlled waters around Kinmen County.
The four Chinese vessels approached the outer boundary of “restricted” waters around Kinmen and entered the Taiwan-controlled waters at 7am from four different points, the CGA said in a statement.
The intrusion was the first this month and 31st this year, it said.
The Chinese ships left the restricted waters at 9am only to re-enter at 10am, when the CGA again dispatched four vessels in response.
The Chinese vessels left Taiwan-controlled waters between noon and 1pm, it said.
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