37 Chinese aircraft skirt Taiwan on route to military drill: Taipei

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
10 Jul 2024 08:13

Taiwan's Defense Ministry says 37 Chinese aircraft were detected near the island on Wednesday, heading toward exercises with an aircraft carrier in the western Pacific.

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Chinese state media released this photo from the country’s largest naval exercises in decades, carried out in May on Hainan Island. (Xinhua, via Associated Press)

37 Chinese aircraft were detected near Taiwan on Wednesday, Taiwan's Defense Ministry reported. The aircraft were reportedly en route to exercises with an aircraft carrier in the Western Pacific.

At around 9:30 am (0130 GMT) on Wednesday, Taipei reported that "since 0520 today, the Ministry of National Defence detected a total of 37 Chinese aircraft" around Taiwan, comprising fighter jets, bombers, and drones. Thirty-six of these aircraft crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, the narrow waterway that separates the island from China, the ministry added.

"(The aircraft) headed to the Western Pacific via our southern and southeastern airspace to cooperate with the aircraft carrier the Shandong in conducting 'joint sea and air training'," it said in a statement.

Defense Minister Wellington Koo told journalists the Shandong "did not pass through the Bashi Channel," the area off Taiwan's southern tip that Chinese ships usually pass through on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

Instead, it "went further south through the Balingtang Channel towards the Western Pacific," he said, referring to a waterway just north of the Philippines' Babuyan Island, approximately 250 kilometers south of the Bashi Channel.

The Chinese flights followed Japan's Joint Staff Office reporting that four PLA navy vessels, including the Shandong, were sailing 520 kilometers southeast of Miyako Island the previous day.

"On the same day, the Chinese navy's Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier 'Shandong' was observed landing and departing fighter aircraft and helicopters on board," it said in a statement.

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This comes weeks after the Pentagon's Defense Security Cooperation Agency confirmed the State Department's possible sale of $360 million worth of drones and missiles to Taiwan.

At the time, the agency claimed that the sale "will help improve the security of the recipient and assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region."

It added that Switchblade 300 anti-personnel and anti-armor loitering munitions are included in the sale for an estimated cost of $60.2 million, and ALTIUS 600M-V drones and related equipment for an estimated cost of $300 million.

Taiwan's Defense Ministry said that "in the face of the Chinese communists' frequent military operations around Taiwan, these US-agreed-to arms sales items will have the ability to detect and strike in real-time, and can respond quickly to enemy threats."

In recent years, Taiwan has complained that China has been engaging in so-called gray zone warfare, which aims to exhaust an opponent without resorting to open combat.

Beijing strongly opposes the United States' arms sales to Taiwan, criticizing Washington for aiding what it perceives as efforts to promote "Taiwan independence" through military strengthening. China also resolutely opposes the US interference in Taiwan affairs in any way or under any pretext.