The Taiwanese armed forces have detected 19 aircraft and five ships of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) approaching the island, according to a statement by the island’s defense department on Twitter.
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“Since 8:00 a.m. on June 24, Taiwan’s armed forces have spotted 19 Chinese People’s Liberation Army aircraft (including J-10, J-16 fighters), eight of which crossed the Taiwan Strait’s median line,” the agency said in a statement.
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It is noted that the Taiwanese military also recorded the approach of five PLA ships conducting joint combat patrols approaching the island.
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However, the Taiwan Ministry of Defense reported that between 06:00 on June 23 and 06:00 on June 24, five ships and eight PLA aircraft, including a Z-9 ASW helicopter, approached the island.
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The situation around the island escalated last August, after a visit to Taipei by Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. The PRC does not recognize the sovereignty of the island, considers it its province and categorically opposes its contacts with officials and military from other countries.
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Official relations between the Chinese central government and Taiwan broke down in 1949, after Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang forces, defeated in a civil war with the Communist Party, moved to the island. Business and informal contacts between Taiwan and mainland China resumed in the late 1980s.
