More than 70 Chinese army planes operated in Taiwan this weekend, just in the run-up to the presidential elections in the United States.
In its latest daily report, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense (MND) said that a total of 44 devices They flew over the area around the island between 6:00 a.m. local Sunday (10:00 p.m. GMT Saturday) and 6:00 a.m. local Monday (10:00 p.m. GMT Sunday).
It is the highest daily figure since October 14, when Beijing carried out a series of large-scale military maneuvers near Taiwan.
Of the total number of aircraft reported, 37 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Straitan unofficial border respected for decades, and entered the southwest and southeast region of the self-proclaimed Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), without entering Taiwanese airspace.
“The Armed Forces of the Republic of China (Taiwan’s official name) monitored the situation and used mission aircraft, navy ships and coastal missile systems in response to the detected activities,” the Ministry of Defense said. Defense of the island.
In a separate statement, the MDN warned that since 9:00 a.m. local time (1:00 GMT) on Sunday, it had detected successive incursions by Chinese aircraft, including J-16 fighter jetsH-6 bombers, KJ-500 early warning aircraft and drones, heading to the Western Pacific “to conduct long-range training on the high seas.”
The military portfolio also pointed out that around 20 Chinese military aircraft were operating near Taiwan from 6:20 p.m. local time (10:20 GMT) to conduct “joint combat readiness patrols” with Navy ships.
A message to Washington?
These movements took place a few days before the American presidential elections, including the two main candidates, the Republican Donald Trump and the democrat Kamala Harrisare in favor of maintaining a policy of “containment” towards Beijing.
One of the hottest points in the bilateral relationship is precisely Taiwan, since the United States is Taipei’s main arms supplier and could defend the island in the event of a conflict with China.
In this context, the US Department of State approved at the end of October the possible sale of three arms packages to Taiwan for a total of $1.988 million, the largest sale authorized under the mandate of US President Joe Biden, to the island.
Specifically, Taiwan’s representative office in the United States requested “the purchase of turnkey AN/TPS-77 and AN/TPS-78 radar systems”, as well as “three medium-range defense solutions of the system national advanced ground-based missiles”. Air (NASAMS)”, which include 123 advanced air-to-air missiles.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs then declared that it would take “all necessary measures” to defend its “national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity”, since these sales “seriously” harmed the giant’s “security interests”. Asian.
Taiwan – where China’s nationalist army retreated after defeat by communist troops in the civil war (1927-1949) – has been governed autonomously since the end of the war, although China claims sovereignty over the island, despite what it considers to be a rebel province for “reunification” of which it does not exclude the use of force.
