Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that in the early hours of the morning 37 Chinese military jets have entered the Taiwanese Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), violating the airspace access to which is regulated and monitored for national security reasons. Thursday’s is only the most recent of the many military exercises that China has been carrying out for some time around Taiwan: the Taiwanese government has responded by alerting its forces and sending fighter planes.
Taiwan is de facto an independent state but China claims it as its own territory. In the past three years, tensions between the two countries have increased both due to frequent Chinese military exercises around the island and because Taiwan is supported by the United States, which has contributed to increasing diplomatic tensions between the two powers.
The Taiwanese defense ministry said Chinese jets entered the southwest part of the ADIZ and later some moved southeast towards the Pacific Ocean. They included J-11 and J-16 fighter jets as well as H-6 bombers, which are capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
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