53 Chinese planes detected around Taiwan, with 14 having crossed median line
ROC Central News Agency
09/01/2022 09:04 PM
Taipei, Sept. 1 (CNA) A total of 53 Chinese military aircraft and eight naval ships were detected in areas around Taiwan on Thursday, with 14 of the planes having crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, according to the Ministry of National Defense (MND).
MND data showed that 10 Shenyang J-11 fighter jets and four Xi'an JH-7 fighter bombers flew across the median line of the Taiwan Strait.
Meanwhile, nine other planes flew into the southwestern part of Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ).
The planes which entered Taiwan's ADIZ consisted of one Y-8 anti-submarine warfare plane, five Shenyang J-16 fighter jets, two H-6 bombers, and one KJ-500 third-generation airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) plane.
The MND did not release the flight paths of the other planes.
The ministry said it scrambled combat air and naval patrols and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese military aircraft.
Taiwan's defense ministry has been posting information about Chinese planes entering Taiwan's ADIZ since Sept. 17, 2020, amid the growing frequency of incursions by Chinese military aircraft.
China stepped up its military maneuvers in early August this year after the visit of U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Aug. 2 and 3, holding several days of live-fire drills in at least six locations around Taiwan.
Chinese warplanes, with the most recent being the 14 on Thursday, have been crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait regularly since Pelosi's visit, which was seen as a more provocative move than flying into the ADIZ.
However, the median line, while mostly adhered to by both China and Taiwan as an unofficial border in previous decades, has no legal standing, and China has said several times from 2020 that the line does not exist.
(By Novia Huang and James Lo)
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