The Chinese flights came a day after the US Secretary of State warned Beijing that Washington is committed to defending the democratic, self-governing island, which China considers part of its sovereign territory.
The 25 planes deployed by Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) forces include 14 J-16 fighter jets, four J-10 fighter jets, four H-6K bombers, two anti-submarine warplanes and one early-stage aircraft. warning and control in the air. to the Taiwan Ministry of Defense.
Taiwan responded by scrambling fighter planes, alerting missile defense systems and issuing radio warnings to the Chinese planes that they had entered the southwest corner of the island’s self-proclaimed air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the ministry said.
An image provided by the ministry showed the flight traces of the Chinese plane coming to and from mainland China and returning to the mainland from 180 degrees between the main Taiwan island and Pratas Island, southeast of Hong Kong.
Taiwan began posting regular updates on PLA flights off the island last September. Before Monday, the largest number of Chinese fighters to invade Taiwan’s ADIZ was 20 shine On March 26.
The US Federal Aviation Administration defines an ADIZ as “a designated area of airspace over land or water in which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interests of the national security of the country.”
Chinese planes have raided Taiwan’s ADIZ almost daily in recent weeks as tensions between Beijing and Taipei’s main supporter, the United States, are mounting.
Beijing claims Taiwan as its territory, even though the democratic island of nearly 24 million inhabitants has been separately governed for more than seven decades.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has vowed that Beijing will never allow Taiwan to become formally independent and has refused to rule out the use of force, if necessary, to unite the island with the mainland.
Analysts said the exercises were a warning to Taipei and Washington that Beijing would not take measures for Taiwanese independence and was willing to take military action to prevent it.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday that Washington stood by its commitment to defend Taiwan.
“What really worries us is the Beijing government’s increasingly aggressive actions against Taiwan,” Blinken said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We have a serious commitment to Taiwan to defend itself. We have a serious commitment to peace and security in the Western Pacific. And in that context, it would be a grave mistake for anyone to attempt to forcibly change that status quo. , ‘Said Blinken.
Monday’s Chinese flights to ADIZ in Taiwan are continuing a pattern, said Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“ Any time the United States takes a position on Taiwan that China doesn’t like or when Taiwan does something they don’t like, the activity is usually ramped up within the Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone, and sometimes around some of the islands that make up Taiwan occupied in the South China Sea, ‘Glaser said.
China is rapidly gathering weapons and systems to overwhelm the island militarily, the leaders said.
“My view is that this problem is much closer to us than most think,” Admiral John Aquilino, the admiral chosen to become the next commander of the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific, warned last month at a hearing before the United States. Senate Committee on Armed Forces.
China sees gaining full control over Taiwan as its “first priority,” Aquilino added.
The current head of command, Admiral Philip Davidson, told a hearing earlier this month that China might be willing to take Taiwan by force within six years.
CNN’s Angus Watson and CNN’s Beijing office contributed to this report.