China warplanes stage largest incursion yet into skies near Taiwan

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) aircraft came in two waves, the Defense Ministry said.Twenty-five PLA warplanes entered the southwestern corner of the ADIZ during daylight hours, and another 13 planes entered the island’s southwest ADIZ on Friday night, the ministry said in a statement. While the Chinese planes in the afternoon sortie stayed in the extreme southwestern part of the ADIZ, the planes involved in the evening flight flew through the defense zone and hooked up toward the northeast before reversing course and returning to the Chinese mainland, the Defense Ministry said.The 25 PLA planes involved in the daylight incursion included 18 J-16 fighters, four Su-30 fighters, two H-6 bombers and one Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, according to the Defense Ministry.The later flight included 10 J-16s, two H-6s and one KJ-500 airborne early warning aircraft, it added.The incursions did not violate Taiwan’s sovereign airspace, which extends 12 nautical miles from its coast. The US Federal Aviation Administration defines an ADIZ as “a designated area of airspace over land or water within which a country requires the immediate and positive identification, location and air traffic control of aircraft in the interest of the country’s national security.”The Taiwan and mainland China have been governed separately since the end of a civil war more than seven decades ago, in which the defeated Nationalists fled to Taipei.However, Beijing views Taiwan as an inseparable part of its territory — even though the Chinese Communist Party has never governed the democratic island of about 24 million people.Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reiterated that point last week after Beijing sent a total of 24 warplanes into the island’s ADIZ in a single day.”Taiwan is Taiwan, and it is not part of the People’s Republic of China. The People’s Republic of China has never ruled Taiwan for a single day,” a statement from Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.This past Thursday, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office issued a statement and criticized Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu for “frantically making Taiwan independence speeches” on the international stage.”Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory and has never been a country,” the statement said. “We are telling Joseph Wu and his likes that unification is the right way and ‘Taiwan independence’ is a dead end.””Following the trend of national rejuvenation and unification, various ‘Taiwan independence’ forces are like grasshoppers after autumn. 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good day. The #PLAAF flew 38 warplanes into #Taiwan’s ADIZ, making it the largest number of daily sorties on record. Threatening? Of course. It’s strange the #PRC doesn’t bother faking excuses anymore,” Wu tweeted on Taiwan’s Foreign Ministry account.Despite the increase in PLA flights and the harsh rhetoric from Taiwan, Grossman, the RAND analyst, doesn’t think combat is imminent.”I don’t think there is a high or even medium probability of a Chinese attack or invasion of Taiwan,” he told CNN.”The PLA still has many vulnerabilities, especially when faced with the near-certain intervention of the United States with possibly — probably? — Japanese and Australian support,” he added. “China understands the severe downsides of a failed attack or invasion of Taiwan and will probably continue to bide its time.”