HONG KONG, May 18. /TASS/. Taiwan has reported the approach of an unmanned aerial vehicle and four Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships in the region adjacent to the island in the past 24 hours, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the statement, "an unmanned aerial vehicle and four PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected between 6 a.m. (1 a.m. Moscow time — TASS) on May 17 and 6 a.m. (1 a.m. Moscow time — TASS) on May 18."

It specified that the UAV, a WZ-7 drone, entered the Taiwanese air defense identification zone in the island’s southwest. Aircraft were scrambled to identify the air target, and warnings were issued by Taiwan.

PLAN vessels and aircraft have been patrolling the waters and airspace near the island regularly amid tensions in the Taiwan Strait that escalated after former Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi paid a visit to Taipei early last August. China criticized the high-level visit as a provocation, interpreting it as interference in its internal affairs and support for Taiwanese separatists.

Taiwan, China’s largest island, has been governed by its local administration since 1949. Official Beijing considers Taiwan a province of the People’s Republic of China. Washington remains Taipei’s key supplier of weapons and military hardware.