Chinese military aircraft detected 68.5 km from Keelung: MND

Taipei, April 28 (CNA) Twelve Chinese military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait from 6 a.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday, including an unspecified number that flew as close as 37 nautical miles (68.5 kilometers) from Keelung, according to Taiwan's defense ministry.

A total of 22 People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and four People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. Sunday, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a statement.

The ministry noted that 12 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's northern air defense identification zone (ADIZ).

"ROC Armed Forces have monitored the situation and employed CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities," it said.

ROC is the abbreviation of the Republic of China, Taiwan's formal name.

The ministry also published a post on X (previously known as Twitter) with a graphic indicating that from 6 a.m. to 1:38 p.m. on Saturday, 14 PLA aircraft and drones were detected in the air over the strait, with 10 crossing the median line and an unspecified number coming as close as 68.5 km to Keelung in northern Taiwan.

In addition, from 8:43 a.m. to 12:52 p.m. Saturday, two PLA planes were detected crossing the median line of the strait, with one or both coming as close as 97 nautical miles from Keelung, the graphic showed.

The ministry, which has published PLA activities in waters and airspace around Taiwan on a regular basis since September 2020, did not identify the types of PLA aircraft it detected -- a practice it halted on Jan. 16.

Considering the changing security situation and threats, identifying the types of PLA aircraft could play into the hands of China, which could exploit this information to wage cognitive warfare against the Taiwanese public, military spokesman Major General Sun Li-fang (孫立方) said at the time.

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.