China sent the most warplanes into sensitive areas around Taiwan since large-scale military exercises in April, a move that follows visits to the democratically run island by US and Canadian lawmakers.
A sortie of 32 planes crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait or the island’s air-defense identification zone as of early Wednesday, the Defense Ministry in Taipei said in a Tweet. China’s military has stepped up flights across the line the US drew in 1954, sorties that effectively shrink the buffer zone between the two sides and wear down Taiwan’s smaller armed forces.
The Chinese aircraft cooperated with naval vessels “to carry out joint sea and air training,” the ministry said in a separate statement Tuesday evening. Taiwan’s military “kept a close watch” on the movements of the warplanes and vessels, including using “shore-mounted missile systems to closely monitor and deal with them.”
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