While China resumes military activity near Taiwan, Taiwan’s defense ministry stated on Saturday that 10 Chinese aircraft breached the median line of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary between the two sides.
In its daily military report, the ministry claimed nine Chinese fighter planes and one military drone crossed the median line in the 24 hours to 6 a.m. on Saturday (2000 GMT on Friday).
The government claimed Taiwan warned Chinese planes as missile systems observed them.
In recent years, Taiwan, which China claims as its territory despite the island’s protests, has complained of practically daily Chinese air force flights near the democratically ruled island, frequently in its southwestern air defense identification zone.
China has warned of unspecified repercussions if Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, now in the Americas, meets U.S. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. She will see him in Los Angeles on her way back to Taipei from Central America this month.
After then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei, China held war drills surrounding Taiwan.
This week, a top Taiwan security official told Reuters that China was unlikely to repeat such big drills, but all preparations were set in case Beijing responded “irrationally.”
On Friday, nine Chinese combat readiness patrol aircraft breached the middle line, which Taiwan’s defense ministry claimed “deliberately generated tension” and threatened peace and stability.
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