June 8 (UPI) — Taiwan detected 37 sorties by Chinese military aircraft into its air defense identification zone Thursday, the island’s Defense Ministry said.
The ministry said that it detected Chinese J-11 and J-16 fighters and H-6 bombers, as well as transport and early warning aircraft, flying into the southwestern part of Taiwan’s ADIZ starting at 5 a.m.
Some of the planes continued flying into the western Pacific and “carried out aerial surveillance and long-distance navigation training,” the ministry said in a statement.
Taiwan scrambled aircraft and ships and activated shore-mounted missile systems to monitor the large-scale incursion, Beijing’s latest in a steady stream of provocations that Taipei calls “gray zone” warfare meant to strain the island’s defense capabilities and wear down its morale.
China considers the democratic island of 23 million a wayward province and has vowed to seize control of it by force if necessary. Taiwan has never been a part of the mainland People’s Republic of China, which was founded in 1949, and rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims.
In response, Taiwan has boosted its defense spending and engagement with the United States, which does not recognize the island diplomatically but sells Taipei weapons.
The island has been a growing source of friction in China-U.S. relations, with Beijing launching large-scale military exercises around Taiwan in response to a visit to Taipei last year by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. A trip by Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen to the United States in April triggered another series of war games by China.
Over the weekend, a Chinese warship nearly collided with an American destroyer conducting freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait, in a maneuver that the U.S. military called “unsafe.”
That incident came just days after the Pentagon said a Chinese J-16 fighter jet performed “an unnecessarily aggressive maneuver” against a U.S. aircraft operating in the South China Sea.
China’s assertiveness in the region has alarmed other U.S. allies, as well. On Tuesday, China and Russia conducted joint air patrols around the East China Sea and the Sea of Japan — known as the East Sea in Korea — prompting Tokyo and Seoul to scramble fighter jets in response.
South Korea’s Defense Ministry lodged a “stern” protest with China and Russia on Wednesday, saying their warplanes entered its air defense identification zone without notice.