HONG KONG, February 20. /TASS/. Taiwan has reported the approach of 24 Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft and eight People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships in the region adjacent to the island, Taiwan’s defense department said.

According to it, 11 aircraft crossed the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait or entered the so-called island's air defense identification zone, which Taiwan considers the fictitious border with mainland China. "Taiwan’s armed forces have monitored the situation and employed appropriate forces to respond," the military said in a statement on its X page.

The Taiwan Air Defense Identification Zone is unilaterally declared by the island and covers an area of 492,000 square kilometers, far exceeding the island's airspace. It also covers the surrounding waters, the Taiwan Strait and part of the airspace over the mainland Chinese provinces of Fujian, Jiangxi and Zhejiang.

Chinese PLA aircraft and PLAN vessels have been crossing the median line and entering the island’s air defense identification zone much more frequently since early August 2022, when the then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, visited Taipei. China views such visits as provocations, interference in China's 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.