The island government said China had carried out its second-largest strike on Taiwan’s air defense zone since the beginning of the year, with the entry of 30 aircraft, including 20 of them fighter jets.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said Monday night that it has deployed its own aircraft and missile defense systems to monitor China’s recent activities.
Beijing has launched massive raids on Taiwan’s defense zone in recent years to show its dissatisfaction with the island’s self-government and to keep its obsolete fighter jet fleet under pressure.
Taiwan, with its democratic government, lives under the constant threat of invasion from China, which considers the island part of its territory and promises to seize control, if necessary, by force.
The US government last week accused China of escalating tensions with the island. Foreign Minister Antony Blinken cited the airstrikes as an example of China’s “increasingly proactive rhetoric and activity”.
Blinken’s remarks came after US President Joe Biden appeared to break the country’s decades-long ambiguous policy by saying that Washington would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of an attack from Beijing.
The White House later noted that while acknowledging China’s legal sovereignty and expressing “strategic uncertainty” over whether its troops would act in a conflict, it continued its policy of providing arms to Taiwan.
Monday’s raid was the largest since January 23, when 39 Chinese aircraft entered the air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
ADIZ differs from Taiwanese airspace and includes a sector that overlaps part of China’s air defense identification zone.
A flight map released by Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense shows that the planes entered the southwestern part of ADIZ before leaving the area.
Taiwan recorded 969 attacks on ADIZ by Chinese aircraft last year, more than double the 380 recorded in 2020, according to the AFP database.
Since the beginning of 2022, Taiwan has reported 465 attacks, an increase of 50% compared to the same period last year.
source: Noticias
