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Chinese military aircraft again fly over seas east of Taiwan

Central News Agency

2017/12/18 20:51:38

Taipei, Dec. 18 (CNA) A Chinese military transport plane was observed flying over the Western Pacific Ocean east of Taiwan Monday, the second consecutive day Chinese military aircraft were seen undertaking a similar mission, an Air Force official said that day.

The move by the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) prompted Defense Minister Feng Shih-kuan (馮世寬) to leave a committee hearing at the Legislative Yuan and rush to the tri-service military command center in Taipei's Dazhi District to take command of the situation, the official said.

After being briefed on the latest PLA activity close to Taiwan, Feng instructed the reinforcement of monitoring and surveillance operations and the deployment of aircraft and ships based on existing regulations, and ordered measures to protect Taiwan's safety, the official added.

A PLA Shaanxi Y-8 transport plane, which appeared to be engaged in a long-distance training mission, flew from the Bashi Channel -- the waterway that separates Taiwan from the Philippines -- back to its base on the mainland, passing east off Taiwan and through the Miyako Strait.

The Miyako Strait, which lies between the Japanese islands of Miyako and Okinawa, is part of Japan's exclusive economic zone but includes a narrow band of international waters and airspace.

A day earlier, several PLA reconnaissance and electronic warfare aircraft were observed flying on the same route over the Western Pacific Ocean from south to north.

According to Ministry of National Defense (MND) open data, it was the 18th time since the beginning of the year that Chinese military aircraft had been observed flying from the Bashi Channel or the Miyako Strait toward the Western Pacific Ocean for long-distance training missions.

With public concern over possible intrusion by PLA aircraft into Taiwan's air defense identification zone (AIDZ) or even air territory, MND officials said earlier in the day that if Chinese military planes enter the AIDZ, Taiwanese aircraft will take off at once to send a warning message that they should leave.

If it is decided that the PLA planes were trying to infiltrate Taiwan's air territory, our aircraft will fire warning shots to force them to leave, the officials noted, but if they still enter, then "the military must judge if they are hostile."

The military must "make different decisions based on different situations," but the top guideline is "not to begin a war unless it is absolutely necessary," the officials said.

Asked earlier about a possible scenario in which Chinese military aircraft could ask to land at airports in eastern Taiwan due to mechanical failure during their training missions, Feng replied that Taiwan and China are now not at war, therefore such aircraft should be allowed to land out of humanitarian considerations.

But they will be told to leave as soon as their problems are fixed, Feng said.

China sees Taiwan as part of its territory and has never relinquished the use of force or ceased its deployment of missiles targeting the country.

(By Lu Hsin-hui and Elizabeth Hsu)
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