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TAIPEI: Taiwan launched fighter jets on Friday as 18 Chinese jets flew over the island, including crossing the sensitive middle line of the Taiwan Strait, in escalating tensions as a senior US official held talks in Taipei.
China had previously announced the start of combat drills near the Taiwan Strait, denouncing what it called collusion between the island, which it claims as part of its territory, and the United States.
US Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach arrived in Taipei on Thursday for a three-day visit, the highest-ranking State Department official to come to Taiwan in four decades, which China had said would spark a “necessary answer”.
Beijing has watched the increasingly close relationship between Taipei and Washington with growing alarm, and has intensified military exercises near the island, including two days of large-scale air and sea drills last week.
With the US presidential elections looming in November, China-US relations are under great pressure from a trade war, US digital security concerns, and the coronavirus pandemic.
Taiwan said 18 Chinese planes were involved on Friday, a much larger number than it had previously announced for such encounters.
“On September 18, two H-6 bombers, eight J-16 fighters, four J-10 fighters and four J-11 fighters crossed the middle line of the Taiwan Strait and entered southwestern Taiwan’s ADIZ,” the ministry said. Defense in a tweet in English. .
“ROCAF coded the fighters and deployed an air defense missile system to monitor activities.” The ROCAF, Taiwan’s air force, has moved frequently in recent months in response to Chinese intrusions.
The ministry showed a map of the flight paths of Chinese jets crossing the middle line of the Taiwan Strait, which normally avoid passing fighter jets on both sides.
Taiwan’s Liberty Times newspaper said Taiwan’s air force planes had been fired 17 times Friday morning over four hours, warning the Chinese air force to stay away.
It also showed an image of missiles loaded onto an F-16 fighter at Hualien Air Base on the east coast of Taiwan.
Necessary and reasonable action
In Beijing, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Ren Guoqiang said Friday’s maneuvers, about which he did not elaborate, involved the eastern theater command of the People’s Liberation Army.
“They are a reasonable and necessary action aimed at the current situation in the Taiwan Strait and protecting national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ren said.
He said Taiwan was a purely China’s internal affair and accused the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of intensifying “collusion” with the United States.
Trying to “use Taiwan to control China” or “rely on foreigners to rebuild” was an illusion and useless. “Those who play with fire will get burned,” Ren said.
Taiwan’s presidential office urged China to exercise restraint and urged Taiwanese not to be alarmed, saying the military had an idea of the situation.
Hu Xijin, editor of the Chinese state-backed Global Times tabloid, wrote on his Weibo microblog that the drills were a preparation for an attack on Taiwan should the need arise, and that they enabled the collection of intelligence on the systems. defense of Taiwan.
“If the US Secretary of State or Secretary of Defense visits Taiwan, the People’s Liberation Army fighters should fly over the island of Taiwan and exercise directly in the skies above it,” he added.
Chinese fighter jets briefly crossed the mid-line of the Taiwan Strait last month when U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar was in Taipei, and last week China conducted two days of large-scale drills off the southwest coast of Taiwan.
The United States, like most countries, has official ties only with China, not with Taiwan, although Washington is the island’s main arms supplier and the largest international sponsor.
This week, the US ambassador to the United Nations had lunch with Taiwan’s top envoy in New York. China’s UN mission said it had made “tough statements” about the meeting.
