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The new J-20 fighter jet during the International Air and Space Exhibition in Zhuhai, China.

China increases its pressure on Taiwan: Taipei denounces the incursion of 71 planes and seven military ships near the median line

The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense denounced on Monday the presence of 71 Chinese planes and five military ships in the vicinity of the island, with 47 of the planes arriving to cross the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait.

Among the 47 aircraft of the People's Liberation Army (Chinese Army) that crossed the median line, there were twelve J-11 fighter jets, 18 J-16 fighters, and six SU-30 fighters, which crossed the median line between 06:00 a.m. local time on Sunday (22:00 GMT on Saturday) and 6:00 on Monday (22:00 GMT on Sunday).

The median line of the Strait of Formosa, which in practice is an unofficial border tacitly respected by Taipei and Beijing in recent decades, has been constantly crossed in recent months by Chinese forces during military exercises.

According to the military portfolio, the island's air forces monitored the situation with combat air and naval patrols and with missile systems on the ground to scare away Chinese planes from the Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), which is not defined. nor regulated by any international treaty and is not equivalent to its airspace.

For its part, the Chinese Army explained on Monday that it organized "bombing maneuvers" and "alert patrols" on Sunday in "sea and air zones around the island of Taiwan."

It was "a resolute response to the recent increase in collusion between Taiwan and the United States," Shi Yi, a spokesman for the Chinese Army's Eastern Theater of Operations, said in a statement.

Response to US aid

These incursions occur after the United States Congress approved last Friday the so-called National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which provides for spending 858,000 million dollars in defense, energy, and national security, which includes aid military to Taiwan.

The Chinese Defense Ministry showed on Saturday its "dissatisfaction" with the US decision through its spokesman Tan Kefei, who accused the North American country of "seriously endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" and " emptying of meaning the principle of 'one China'".

In the past two years, the number of raids by Chinese planes and ships has increased, actions that have been condemned by both Taiwan and the United States.

The visit to the territory last August by the speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, deeply irritated the Chinese government, which responded with economic sanctions and the announcement of military exercises in the waters surrounding Taiwan. , decisions that brought tension in the Strait to unprecedented levels in decades.

China claims sovereignty over the island and considers Taiwan a rogue province since Kuomintang nationalists withdrew there in 1949 after losing the civil war against the communists.

Taiwan, with whom the US does not maintain official relations, is one of the biggest sources of conflict between China and the US, mainly because Washington is the island's main arms supplier and would be its biggest military ally in the event of war conflict with the Asian giant.