HONG KONG, June 5. /TASS/. Taiwan’s armed forces have registered 26 aircraft and 10 ships from China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) approaching the island over the past 24 hours, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said in a statement published on its website.

According to it, "19 of the aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered Taiwan’s northern and southwestern ADIZ." The Taiwanese armed forces engaged aviation, ships and coastal missile systems in response, the statement reads.

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.

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.