China sends 25 warplanes into Taiwan's air defense zone, Taipei says
Hong Kong (CNN)China sent 25 warplanes into Taiwan's air defense identification zone on Monday, the largest breach of that space since the island began regularly reporting such activity in September, Taiwan's Defense Ministry said.
The
Chinese flights came a day after the US secretary of state warned
Beijing that Washington was committed to the defense of the democratic,
self-governed island, which China considers part of its sovereign
territory.
The
25 planes dispatched by China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) forces
included 14 J-16 fighter jets, four J-10 fighter jets, four H-6K
bombers, two anti-submarine warfare planes and an airborne early warning
and control plane, according to Taiwan's Defense Ministry.
Taiwan
responded by scrambling combat aircraft, alerting missile defense
systems and issuing radio warnings to the Chinese planes that they had
entered the southwestern corner of the island's self-declared air
defense identification zone (ADIZ), a ministry statement said.
A
graphic supplied by the ministry showed flight tracks for the Chinese
aircraft coming from and returning toward the Chinese mainland, making
180-degree turns between the main Taiwanese island and Pratas Island,
southeast of Hong Kong.
Taiwan
began posting regular updates on PLA flights near the island last
September. Before Monday, the largest number of Chinese warplanes to
enter Taiwan's ADIZ was 20 jets on March 26.
The
US Federal Aviation Administration defines an ADIZ as "a designated
area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the
immediate and positive identification, location, and air traffic control
of aircraft in the interest of the country's national security."
Chinese
planes have been making almost daily incursions into Taiwan's ADIZ in
recent weeks, as tensions heat up between Beijing and Taipei's main
supporter, the United States.
Beijing
claims Taiwan as its territory, even though the democratic island of
almost 24 million people has been governed separately for more than
seven decades.
Chinese
President Xi Jinping has vowed that Beijing will never allow Taiwan to
become formally independent and has refused to rule out the use of
force, if necessary, to unify the island with the mainland.
Last
week, the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning put on a show of military
muscle around Taiwan, according to Chinese state media. At one point the
PLA flanked Taiwan,
with the Liaoning and its escorts operating in the Pacific Ocean to the
east and PLA warplanes making forays into Taiwan's ADIZ to the west.
Analysts
said the exercises were a warning to Taipei and Washington that Beijing
would not brook any moves for Taiwanese independence and was prepared
to act militarily to prevent that from happening.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Sunday said Washington was standing by a commitment to defend Taiwan.
"What
is a real concern to us is increasingly aggressive actions by the
government in Beijing directed at Taiwan," Blinken said on NBC's "Meet
the Press."
"We
have a serious commitment to Taiwan being able to defend itself. We
have a serious commitment to peace and security in the Western Pacific.
And in that context, it would be a serious mistake for anyone to try to
change that status quo by force," Blinken said.
Monday's
Chinese flights into Taiwan's ADIZ continue a pattern, said Bonnie
Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic
and International Studies.
"Every
time the United States takes a position regarding Taiwan which China
doesn't like or if Taiwan does something that they don't like, it
usually ratchets up the activity inside Taiwan's air defense
identification zone, and sometimes around some of the islands that
Taiwan occupies in the South China Sea," Glaser said.
US Navy leaders have warned in recent weeks that possible Chinese military action against Taiwan is a real threat.
China is quickly amassing weapons and systems to militarily overwhelm the island, the leaders said.
"My
opinion is this problem is much closer to us than most think," Adm.
John Aquilino, the admiral chosen to be the next commander of US forces
in the Pacific, warned last month in a hearing before the Senate Armed
Services Committee.
China considers establishing full control over Taiwan to be its "number one priority," added Aquilino.
The
current head of the command, Adm. Philip Davidson, told a hearing
earlier this month that China could be prepared to take Taiwan by force
within the next six years.
Nessun commento:
Posta un commento