Taiwan recorded a record 446 attacks on its air defense space by Chinese military aircraft in August, coinciding with Beijing’s angry response to a US congressional visit to the island.
The sharp increase in attacks on Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) comes after China conducted large-scale military exercises to protest the visit of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other politicians to Taipei.
Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of Chinese occupation, which considers the democratically administered island part of its territory and promises to take it one day, including by force if necessary.
A week after Pelosi’s visit in early August, China conducted military maneuvers with warships, missiles and warplanes in the waters and skies around Taiwan in the most aggressive exercises in the region since the mid-1990s.
According to a database compiled by AFP based on data released by the Department of Defense, 446 Chinese aircraft, mostly warplanes, passed through Taiwan’s ADIZ region during the given period.
The monthly total exceeds 380 attacks by Chinese aircraft in the whole of 2020.
Since January, Chinese aircraft have carried out at least 1,068 individual attacks on ADIZ.
Prior to August, the month with the most attacks since Taiwan began publishing data two years ago was October 2021, with 196.
Taiwanese ADIZ is much larger than airspace and overlaps with mainland Chinese ADIZ.
Intense Chinese warfare is putting pressure on the Taiwanese Armed Forces, outnumbered by its neighbor, particularly its aging warplane fleet.
Taiwan last week announced a historic increase in its 2023 defense budget to $19.2 billion following threats from China.
source: Noticias
