More than 30 Chinese warplanes entered Taiwan's air defense zone within six hours, the island's Defense Ministry announced on Thursday, in a new intensification of Chinese military incursion sorties within one day.

Edited by |Alexander Yaxina

Asia    section -  CJ journalist

Taipei - June,8,2023

China considers Taiwan an integral part of its territory that it has not succeeded in annexing since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949, but maintains that it will return it to Chinese sovereignty one day, by force if necessary.

In recent years, Beijing has intensified its airstrikes in the identification zone for air defense purposes on the island, and in 2022 it amounted to twice as many sorties as it carried out in the previous year in that sector.

Taiwan Defense Ministry spokesman Sun Li-Fang announced on Thursday that starting from the fifth (21:00 GMT Wednesday), "37 Chinese military aircraft" entered Taiwan's air defense zone. He added that around 11:00, " Some of them completed their course ... To the western Pacific for long-range reconnaissance exercises".

The ministry wrote on Twitter that the Taiwanese military was "closely monitoring the situation," adding that patrol aircraft, naval vessels and land-based missile systems had been deployed in response, but did not clarify whether the incursions were still ongoing.

Analysts say China's increased air incursions into Taiwan's defense zone are part of broader "gray zone" tactics that are keeping the island under pressure.

The new incursions come a day after the United States, the Philippines and Japan completed the first joint Coast Guard drills in the South China Sea, which Beijing considers its own.

The increase in air incursions and naval exercises of the Chinese military around Taiwan usually coincides with Taipei establishing diplomatic ties with other countries.

On the other hand, Hirokazu Matsuno, chief cabinet secretary of Japan, said that his country expressed "serious concern" and lodged a protest to China after Chinese navy ships entered Japan's waters near Yakushima Island on Thursday, as part of joint patrols of Beijing and Moscow.

He added that two Chinese coast guard vessels also entered Japanese waters around the Senkaku Islands, which China calls the Diaoyu, and tried to approach a Japanese fishing boat.

In contrast, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a regular press briefing on Thursday that the joint Sino - Russian patrols do not target specific countries and comply with international law and international norms.

China and Russia began joint air patrols on Tuesday over the sea of Japan and the East China Sea for the sixth time since 2019, prompting neighbors South Korea and Japan to immediately deploy fighter jets.

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