2023-09-18 08:52:14
Taiwan registered more than 100 Chinese military aircraft flying around its island in one day. The Ministry of Defense in Taipei announced on Monday that 103 aircraft from the People’s Liberation Army and nine naval ships had been recorded within 24 hours by 6:00 a.m. (local time). The Chinese military flies into the area almost daily. This time the number was comparatively high at 103 aircraft.
“We call on the authorities in Beijing to take responsibility and immediately stop such unilateral, destructive actions,” said Taiwan’s Defense Ministry. According to the information, 40 planes flew over the symbolic center line in the Taiwan Strait, the strait between the Republic of Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China. They thereby penetrated the air defense zone in the southeast and southwest of Taiwan.
Taiwan is part of Chinese territory and there is no so-called middle line in the Taiwan Strait, said China’s Foreign Office spokeswoman Mao Ning on Monday. For further information, she referred to the relevant Chinese authorities as this was not a diplomatic issue.
China, ruled by the Communist Party, sees Taiwan, with its around 24 million inhabitants, as part of its territory. Beijing therefore reacts sensitively when delegations from other countries visit the country or promise support. Most recently, China sanctioned two US defense companies for selling weapons to Taiwan, the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced.
Last weekend, representatives from China and the USA spoke to each other in several rounds in Malta. China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan that the Taiwan issue was a “red line” that should not be crossed in China-US relations, according to Chinese sources. According to the White House, the US and China want to hold further talks at the “highest level” in the coming months.
Taiwan has had an independent government since 1949. Beijing has threatened to invade in the past. Most recently, observers also assumed that the Chinese military was holding a major exercise in the Western Pacific, where Taiwan is located. China’s Foreign Ministry did not provide any information and called for provocations that disrupted peace in the Taiwan Strait to be avoided.
The conflict between Beijing and Taipei goes back to the civil war in China: After the defeat against the communists, the national Chinese government fled with its troops to Taiwan. The island has been governed independently since then, while the Communist People’s Republic was proclaimed in Beijing in 1949.
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