23/01/2020
- H-6 bomber, early warning and control plane part of long-haul exercise that bypassed island’s southern tip en route to western Pacific, Taipei says
- Taiwan’s military will remain on high alert over Lunar New Year holiday, ministry says
A KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft was among the PLA military planes that staged an exercise close to Taiwan on Thursday. Photo: Weibo
A group of military aircraft from mainland China flew close to the southernmost tip of
on Thursday, just a week after President Tsai Ing-wen angered Beijing by saying the island was an independent country.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, the formation, which included a KJ-500 early warning and control aircraft and an H-6 bomber, passed through the Bashi Channel near Taiwan’s Orchid Island en route to the western Pacific Ocean.
It did not say how many aircraft were involved but said they had taken off from different airbases in southern China.
“They returned to their airbases from their morning flight path after a long-haul exercise,” the ministry said in a statement.
The ministry urged the public not to be alarmed by the aircraft’s presence, saying it constantly monitored the activities of the
People’s Liberation Army (PLA), both in the air and at sea.
Taiwan’s armed forces would also remain on high alert over the
Lunar New Year
holiday, which starts on Friday, it said.
“There is no holiday for national security,” it said.
The PLA exercise came just a week after Tsai said on January 15 that Beijing needed to face the reality of Taiwan’s independence.
“We don’t have a need to declare ourselves an independent state,” she said in an interview with the BBC. “We are an independent country already and we call ourselves the Republic of China, Taiwan.”
Tsai urges mainland China to review strained ties
Tsai’s comments came just days after she secured a second term as president with a record 8.2 million votes.
In her victory speech, she promised to continue to stand up to Beijing’s intimidation, while also strengthening Taiwan’s defences, partly by developing more home-grown military equipment, including submarines.
US-made F-16V fighters took part in a show of Taiwan’s military might last week. Photo: AFP
In response to Tsai’s “independent country” comments, Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office, said: “We firmly attack and counter various forms of Taiwan independence and separatist activities to maintain overall peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
Beijing regards Taiwan as part of its territory awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. Official ties between the two sides have been suspended since Tsai took office in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle – the political understanding that there is only one China with ambiguity over whether it is governed by Taipei or Beijing.
Over the past four years Beijing has ramped up the pressure on the island, by poaching its diplomatic allies and staging military drills.
Taiwanese Minister of National Defence Yen Te-fa said earlier that the mainland staged about 2,000 bomber patrols a year near the Taiwan Strait.
For their part, Taiwan’s army and air force last week gave two demonstrations of their readiness to defend the island against attack.
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