HONG KONG/XIANGGANG/, January 27. /TASS/. Taiwan’s administration spotted seven Chinese aircraft and four ships around the island in the past 24 hours, the island’s Defense Ministry reported on Friday.
"Today, as of 06:00 a.m., seven aircraft and four ships of the PLA [People’s Liberation Army of China] were spotted around Taiwan," the ministry said in a statement.
The island’s armed forces are keeping a close watch on the situation while aircraft, the naval forces and ground-based surface-to-air missile systems have gone on heightened alert, the statement says.
As Taiwan’s top brass specified, a Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft and a BZK-005 unmanned aerial vehicle entered the island’s air defense identification zone from the southwest.
The Chinese army has been regularly patrolling the waters around Taiwan in recent months. The tension in the Taiwan Strait intensified after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei in August last year. The trip drew sharp criticism from Beijing.
Taiwan has been governed by its local administration since 1949 when the Kuomintang’s remaining forces headed by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) were defeated in the Chinese Civil War and took refuge on the island. Taiwan has preserved the flag and several other symbols of the Republic of China that had existed before the Communists took over the mainland. According to China’s official position supported by most countries, including Russia, the Island of Taiwan is one of China’s provinces.