HONG KONG, July 20. /TASS/. As many as 20 aircraft of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been detected near Taiwan, the Taiwanese military said in a statement on the X social media platform.
"Overall 20 PLA aircraft (including J-16, Y-8, etc.) were detected from 7:22 a.m. today. Out of which, 15 crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the northern, central, southwest, eastern parts of Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone in conducting joint combat patrol along with People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels," the statement reads.
The Taiwanese military "monitored the situation and responded accordingly."
Besides, according to the statement, "22 PLA aircraft and seven PLAN vessels operating around Taiwan were detected up until 6 a.m. today." "Seventeen of the aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan's northern, southwestern and eastern Air Defense Identification Zone," the statement notes.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army has stepped up activities in the region amid the military drills that the Taiwanese military is conducting on the Kinmen Islands on July 19-20. The Kinmen archipelago is located 187 kilometers away from Taiwan and just ten kilometers away from the city of Xiamen in China’s Fujian Province.
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 suffering a defeat 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 considers the island to be one of its provinces.