Chinese aircraft detected 75.8 km from Taiwan: Defense ministry

Taipei, May 3 (CNA) Fourteen Chinese military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait in the 24-hour period starting at 6 a.m. Thursday, with an unspecified number flying as close as 41 nautical miles (75.8 km) of Keelung in northern Taiwan.

The 14 aircraft were part of a larger fleet of 26 aircraft detected in Taiwan's air defense identification zone (ADIZ), while five Chinese vessels were also operating in the waters around Taiwan, according to the Ministry of National Defense on Friday.

The median-line crossings were among the largest-scale and closest to Taiwan recorded in recent weeks.

The number had not been that high since 14 median-line crossings by Chinese military aircraft were recorded in the 24 hours after 6 a.m. on April 20.

On April 28, the defense ministry recorded an unspecified number of Chinese aircraft flying as close as 37 nautical miles (68.5 kilometers) to Keelung.

The ministry, which has published PLA activities in waters and airspace around Taiwan on a regular basis since September 2020, said the intruding aircraft included Sukhoi Su-30 aircraft, KJ-500 airborne early warning and control vehicles and drones, and were accompanied by the ships on a "joint combat readiness patrol."

An ADIZ is a self-declared area in which a country claims the right to identify, locate and control approaching foreign aircraft, but it is not part of the country's territorial airspace as defined by international law.

Chinese sorties of military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait and Taiwan's ADIZ had eased late last year and early this year, but they have picked up since then.

Shu Hsiao-huang (舒孝煌), an associate research fellow at the government-funded think tank Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said last week that Chinese warplanes flying so close to Keelung served a "political and military purpose."

Militarily, he said, it was intended to continuously compress Taiwan's airspace.

Chinese military aircraft crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait and flying close to Taiwan has been intended to "deliberately create a tense atmosphere" by engaging in "gray zone operations" during peacetime, Shu said.

Politically, he suggested, the missions were intended to keep the political heat on Taiwan's new government before it takes office on May 20, and he cautioned that similar practices by China's military will only increase as the date draws nearer.