The Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theater Command is holding live-fire drills along China's southeastern coast, the Ministry of National Defense said today.
In holding drills in waters off Zhejiang and Fuzhou, China has demarcated several no-sail zones in the Taiwan Strait, generally close to its own coastline, the ministry said in a statement.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of National Defense via CNA
Taiwan's armed forces are closely monitoring the situation using their joint intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance systems and have deployed appropriate forces in response.
Meanwhile, the ministry said at 11:30am that it had detected 20 PLA planes near Taiwan since 8:50am.
The aircraft — including J-11 fighters, Y-8 transport aircraft and drones — were operating in conjunction with PLA ships on a routine "joint combat readiness patrol," the ministry said in a separate statement.
Thirteen of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or its extension and entered the northern, central and southwestern parts of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the statement said.
The military kept close tabs on the PLA movements and deployed combat readiness patrol aircraft, vessels and coastal missile defense systems in response, it added.
An ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but is not part of its territorial airspace as defined by international law.
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