The island’s defense ministry reported on Wednesday that China had sent navy ships and a sizable number of aircraft, including bombers and fighter jets, toward Taiwan over the course of two days.
This was before the island began its annual military drills to prepare for a potential invasion.
Between 6 a.m. At noon, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army launched 38 fighter jets and nine navy ships to patrol Taiwan.
Tuesday to six in the morning Wednesday
The military flew an additional 30 aircraft from Wednesday morning to noon, including fighters J-10 and J-16. 32 of these did so over the Taiwan Strait’s midline, an unofficial line that served as a barrier between the island and the mainland.
On Wednesday night, 23 more aircraft passed over the midline.
Later this month, Taiwan’s military will conduct combat preparedness drills to prevent an invasion as part of the annual Han Guang exercise.
Additionally, it will carry out the yearly Wan’an drills, which simulate evacuations in the event of an air raid and are intended to prepare civilians for natural calamities.
In recent years, China has increased the number of military planes dispatched into Taiwan as a way of expressing its discontent with political activities taking place there, which it claims as its own territory.
In the past year, it has also been using drones and navy ships to patrol the waterways close to the island.
During the drills on Tuesday and Wednesday, the PLA flew H-6 bombers in a wide loop south of Taiwan, passing the island before making a second loop back toward China’s southern coast.
In recent years, it has conducted its greatest military exercises in response to former U.S. Visit to Taiwan by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in August of last year.
It significantly escalated the situation by firing missiles over the island, and the military drills forced planes to reroute their flights and interrupted commerce routes in the Taiwan Strait.
Following a meeting between Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen and the then-President of the United States in April, the PLA conducted extensive battle preparedness maneuvers in the air and on the water near Taiwan.
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy.
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