Twenty nine Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan’s self-declared air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Tuesday, according to the island’s Defense Ministry.
The Defense Ministry said the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force planes were a mix of fighter jets, early warning and control aircraft, electronic warfare aircraft, anti-submarine aircraft, electronic intelligence aircraft, and aerial refueling aircraft.
It was the third-highest daily number of Chinese jets entering Taiwan’s ADIZ since the start of the year and comes less than a month after China sent 30 warplanes on a similar mission.
In response, the Taiwanese military scrambled combat aircraft to warn the Chinese jets away, issued radio warnings and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor the activities, the Defense Ministry added.
Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the defeated Nationalists retreated to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war more than 70 years ago.
But China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) views the self-ruled island as part of its territory — despite having never controlled it.
Beijing has not ruled out military force to take Taiwan and has kept pressure on the democratic island over the past few years with frequent warplane flights into the island’s ADIZ.
An ADIZ is unilaterally imposed and distinct from sovereign airspace, which is defined under international law as extending 12 nautical miles from a territory’s shoreline.
The US Federal Aviation Administration defines it as “a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country’s national security.”
BBC
