HONG KONG, September 27. /TASS/. Taiwan’s armed forces (ROC) have recorded 32 aircraft and 8 ships of China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) approaching the island over the past 24 hours, the Ministry of National Defense of Taiwan said in a statement on its website.

"32 PLA aircraft and 8 PLAN vessels around Taiwan were detected by 6 a.m.(UTC+8) (1 a.m. Moscow time - TASS) today. 16 of the detected aircraft had entered Taiwan’s north, southwest and southeast ADIZ. R.O.C. Armed Forces have monitored the situation and tasked CAP aircraft, Navy vessels, and land-based missile systems to respond [to] these activities," the statement said.

The Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), declared unilaterally, covers an area of 492,000 square kilometers and considerably exceeds the island’s airspace. It also spans the waters around it, the Taiwan Strait and part of the airspace over the Fujian, Jiangxi and Zhejiang provinces in mainland China.

The PLA regularly sends its ships and aircraft to the vicinity of Taiwan amid exacerbated relations between the two sides following a visit by Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to the island on August 2-3, 2022. Later, Taiwan was visited by several other delegations of US legislators and officials. Beijing views such visits as provocations, interference in China’s domestic affairs and support for Taiwanese separatists.

Taiwan has been governed by its local administration since 1949 when the remaining Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) fled to the island after being defeated in China’s civil war. Since then, Taiwan has preserved the flag and some other symbols of the Republic of China that had existed in mainland China before the Communists came to power. Beijing regards the island as one of its provinces and this position is supported by most countries, including Russia.