Taipei, June 26 (EFE).- The Taiwanese Government denounced this Wednesday a new incursion of Chinese warplanes around its territory, in the midst of Beijing’s growing military activity in the Taiwan Strait.
As of 07:00 local time (23:00 GMT), Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MDN) detected 26 combat aircraft of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, including J-16 fighters, Y-8 transport aircraft and drones, “ carrying out maritime activities,” the military portfolio indicated in a statement.
Of them, 24 crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial border that had been respected by Beijing and Taipei for decades, and its extension, “passing near the north, center and south” of the island in coordination with ships of the Navy to conduct a “joint combat readiness patrol.”
“The Taiwanese military used joint surveillance and intelligence to maintain strict control, and deployed mission aircraft, ships and ground-based missile systems for an appropriate response,” the statement said.
The Chinese Army has intensified its activity in the Strait following the approval, by the US State Department, of the possible sale of a system of combat drones and loitering missiles to Taiwan for a value of 360, 2 million dollars (about 336 million euros), which marked the fifteenth sale of weapons to the island by the Administration of US President Joe Biden.
Likewise, on June 21 representatives of the State Department met in Taipei with officials from the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs to address Taiwan’s “meaningful participation” in the United Nations system and other international forums, according to a statement from the Institute. American in Taiwan (AIT, Washington’s de facto embassy in Taipei).
In this context, since last June 18, the MDN notified the presence of a total of 199 Chinese war aircraft in the vicinity of the island, of which 140 crossed the dividing line of the strait or entered the self-proclaimed China Identification Zone. Taiwanese Air Defense (ADIZ).
During these maneuvers, Chinese aircraft circled the island on several occasions and approached just 57 kilometers from Cape Eluanbi, at the southern tip of Taiwan.
Chinese authorities consider the Taiwan issue to be a “red line” between Washington and Beijing, as the US is Taipei’s main arms supplier and could defend the island in the event of a conflict.
Taiwan, where the Chinese Nationalist army retreated after being defeated by communist troops in the civil war (1927-1949), has been governed autonomously since the end of the war, although China claims sovereignty over the island, which it considers a rebel province for whose “reunification” it has not ruled out the use of force.
