The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday condemned Chinese and Russian authorities for escalating regional tensions, citing Chinese warplanes crossing the Taiwan Strait’s median line and joint China-Russia military activities breaching South Korea’s air defense identification zone (KADIZ) over the past two days.
A total of 30 Chinese warplanes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait on Thursday and Friday, entering Taiwan’s northern and southwestern airspace in coordination with 15 naval vessels and three high-altitude balloons, the MAC said in a statement.
The Chinese military also carried out another “joint combat readiness patrol” targeting Taiwan on Thursday evening, the MAC said.
Photo: Screen grab from the Japanese Joint Staff Office’s Web site
On top of its ongoing military coercion in the Strait, China also joined forces with Russia on Friday to dispatch 11 warplanes into the KADIZ, prompting the South Korean Air Force to scramble military jets for interception, it added.
Five Chinese and six Russian military aircraft entered the KADIZ between 9:35am and 1:53pm over the Sea of Japan, known in Korea as the East Sea, and the waters off the southern coast of the country, the English-language newspaper the Korean Times reported, citing a South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff official.
Russian aircraft approached from the northeast, while Chinese warplanes intruded into the KADIZ near Ieodo Rock — called the Suyan Reef (蘇岩礁) in China — and flew north over waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan, it said.
“This further proves that the Chinese Communist Party is not only the source of instability in the Taiwan Strait, but also a troublemaker in the Asia-Pacific region,” the MAC said. “The government strongly condemns the irresponsible actions of China and Russia in arbitrarily undermining regional peace and stability.”
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