United States officials expressed their warnings against the Chinese government after several dozen of its warplanes entered Taiwan's defense zone in what is considered to be the largest incursion that has been conducted by Beijing in history.
Authorities said that at least 77 fighter jets were sent by the Chinese military over to Taiwan, with two waves being conducted on Saturday, one in the morning and one in the evening. On that day, 39 military aircraft flew into Taiwan's air defense zone. The situation came after 38 other planes, which included nuclear-capable bombers, went into the zone on Friday.
China's Continued Incursion Into Taiwan
The situation comes as China is known to view Taiwan as a breakaway province despite the latter considering itself a sovereign state. For more than a year, Taiwan officials have expressed their discontent over Beijing's continued missions near the island.
On Saturday, Taiwan Premier Su Tseng-chang said that China has repeatedly engaged in military aggression near the nation, damaging regional peace. However, the Beijing government, where the People's Republic of China has ruled for 72 years, has so far not made any comments regarding the incident, BBC reported.
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Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense said that the group of warplanes sent by China included 26 J-16 fighter jets, 10 Su-30 fighter jets, two Y-8 anti-submarine warning aircraft, and one KJ-500 airborne early warning and control plane. The island's air force, in response, scrambled its own aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defense missile systems to keep the invading forces at bay.
The region's defense ministry also released information regarding the location of all the Chinese flights on Saturday. The post showed that all of the aircraft sent by Beijing was in the extreme southwestern part of the island's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
Taiwan's Airspace
While the incursions did not violate Taiwan's airspace, which spans 12 nautical miles from its coast, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration defined the ADIZ as a country's "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," CNN reported.
Several analysts said that China's flights did not provide an imminent threat of war over Taiwan but did suggest Beijing's continued aggression and signaling on the sovereign island. For some time, the Chinese government has expressed its intentions to absorb the self-ruled island and did not rule out military aggression to conduct its plans.
An Australian analyst of Chinese military policy, Adam Ni, who is currently based in Germany, said that on Oct. 1, which is China's National Day, Beijing sent a message of its determination to reclaim Taiwan. He added that the Chinese government was not hesitant to use force if necessary to achieve its goals. Ni said that Beijing's actions were to assert its power and showcase military strength.
Taiwan's ADIZ dates back to the 1950s, which outlines how the island's authorities assert the right to hold control over aircraft within the airspace to identify themselves and their purpose. A security analyst, Chieh Chung, who works with the National Policy Foundation in Taipei, said the situation was very worrisome, the New York Times reported.
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