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Taiwan records approach of Chinese air, sea forces, including five aircraft, four warships

The statement said that two aircraft crossed the so-called midline of the Taiwan Strait and entered the island's air defense identification zone southwest of it

HONG KONG /XIANGGANG/, May 19. /TASS/. Taiwan has reported the approach of six Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and five People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships in the region adjacent to the island, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said in a statement on Twitter on Friday.

According to the statement, "five PLA aircraft and four PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected by 6 a.m. (1 a.m. Moscow time) today."

It specified that the island’s armed forces were monitoring the situation, and instructed the operators of the aircraft, vessels and ground-based missile systems to respond to those actions.

The statement also said that two aircraft crossed the so-called midline of the Taiwan Strait and entered the island's air defense identification zone southwest of it. The vehicles were: a WZ-7 unmanned aerial vehicle and a Z-9 military utility helicopter.

The PLA has been regularly patrolling the waters near the island 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 trips as provocations, interpreting them 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.

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