Taiwan reports largest daily incursion by 2 dozen Chinese Air Force planes

Taiwan has witnessed the largest daily incursion as over two dozen Chinese military planes flew into the country’s Air Defence Identified Zones (ADIZ) on Tuesday, said the Defence Ministry. The self-ruled island began regularly reporting such actions last year, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense. Tuesday’s flights — which included fighter jets, bombers, and anti-submarine and early warning aircraft — surpassed the previous peak of 25 planes reported April 12.

Beijing has become more assertive on the reunification of Taiwan with China under “one country, two systems”, which has threatened Taiwan’s claim of sovereignty. While the self-ruled island republic considers itself as sovereign, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, China claims Taiwan as Beijing’s territory under its one-China policy, even though the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades. While there was no immediate comment from Beijing on the incident, this happens after the Group of Seven leaders issued a joint statement on Sunday scolding China for a series of issues and underscored the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait — comments China condemned as “slander.” China has in the past described such missions as necessary to protect the country’s sovereignty and deal with “collusion” between Taipei and Washington, which have no formal diplomatic ties.