The Chinese military flew 38 fighter jets and other combat aircraft near Taiwan, Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Friday, in the largest air show since the major military exercise in which it simulated the island’s closure on Thursday. beginning of July.
Warships have also been sighted in the area as part of China’s long-running intimidation campaign against Taiwan. Later Friday, China’s People’s Liberation Army launched a protest over the flight of a US Navy P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine patrol plane across the Taiwan Strait, which separates mainland China from the island, a claimed autonomous democratic state from Beijing.
Calling Thursday’s flight a provocation that the United States “openly cheered,” the PLA’s Eastern Theater Command said it had sent fighter jets to monitor the plane’s flight. Such acts “fully demonstrate that the United States is a disrupter of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and a creator of security risks,” the statement said. “Theatre troops always maintain a high level of alert and resolutely defend national sovereignty and security, as well as regional peace and stability.”
The US Seventh Fleet said Thursday’s flight was conducted in accordance with international law and “demonstrates the US commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
China flies 38 warplanes near Taiwan, 6 navy vessels in area https://t.co/0tffy2mOHX pic.twitter.com/AWwzgQkMvL
— New York Post (@nypost) April 28, 2023
“The United States will continue to fly, sail and operate wherever international law permits, including across the Taiwan Strait,” the statement said. The United States remains Taiwan’s closest military and political ally, despite the lack of formal diplomatic ties between them. US law requires Washington to treat all threats to the island as matters of “serious concern,” though it remains ambiguous whether US forces will be sent in to help defend the island. Beijing has threatened to bring Taiwan under its control by force if necessary, and China’s fiercely nationalist leader Xi Jinping has vowed never to cede “an inch” of his country’s claimed territory, a pledge Taiwan respects. the disputed border with China. India and the South China Sea which China claims almost entirely.
In addition to the latest Chinese fighter flights, Chinese naval vessels have been observed in the area since 6 am. Thursday until 6:00 Friday, the island’s defense ministry said. Nineteen planes crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait that separates the island from the mainland, the ministry said.
He said they included five SU-30 and two J-16 fighter planes, along with one drone: a large, long-endurance TB-001 Scorpion capable of carrying a variety of bombs and missiles that circled the island in one motion relatively rare. according to a diagram from the Ministry of Defense. It’s unclear what, if anything, prompted the large-scale Chinese action, but China’s efforts to train for a possible attack, wear down the island’s military, and impact Taiwan politics have become increasingly ambitious.
US military officials recently said they are increasingly concerned that China’s massive buildup of military capabilities will increase the likelihood of conflict. China has held exercises to simulate a blockade of the island after the sensitive April 5 meeting between Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy in California.
China opposes any official exchanges between Taiwan and other governments. Taiwan and China separated in 1949 after a civil war that resulted in the Communist Party’s control of the mainland.
The island has never been part of the People’s Republic of China, but Beijing says it must join the mainland, by force if necessary.
