Taipei [Taiwan], May 16: Taiwan detected 27 Chinese aircraft and seven naval vessels around the strait until 6 am (local time) on Thursday. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence (MND) said that 19 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's southwest sector and eastern Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ). It further stated that the Taiwanese Armed Forces have "responded accordingly." "27 PLA aircraft and 7 PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m.(UTC+8) today.
19 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan's SW and eastern ADIZ. #ROCArmedForces have monitored the situation and responded accordingly," Taiwan's Ministry of national Defence stated in a post on X. The increased activity in the Taiwan Strait region comes amid growing geopolitical tensions between Taiwan and China, as reported by Taiwan News. Taiwan has long been a point of contention for Beijing, which considers the island a renegade province and has repeatedly expressed intentions to reunify it with the mainland, even if by force.
Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence (MND) has issued daily reports on Chinese military activities for the past few years, including identifying those Chinese aircraft, drones, and balloons that are found to have crossed the Taiwan Strait median line to the Taiwan side. The median line of the Taiwan Strait served for decades as a tacit border between China and Taiwan, but China's military has more freely sent aircraft, warships and drones across it since former United States House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022.
The MND earlier informed that it has tracked Chinese military aircraft 126 times and naval vessels 62 times in May so far. Since September 2020, China has increased its use of grey zone tactics by incrementally increasing the number of military aircraft and naval ships operating around Taiwan. Grey zone tactics are defined as "an effort or series of efforts beyond steady-state deterrence and assurance that attempts to achieve one's security objectives without resort to direct and sizable use of force," Taiwan News reported.
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