Chinese jets enter Taiwan's air defense zone amid US warship's 'provocative action'

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – Eight Chinese jets entered Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) on Saturday, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

The aircraft entered “Taiwan’s southwest ADIZ,” the ministry said on Twitter.

This followed similar flights by Chinese jets over the past two days.

According to the Taiwanese Defense Ministry, nine Chinese fighter jets crossed into the ADIZ on Thursday and four more on Friday.

The ADIZ is a buffer zone outside a country’s airspace, where it has the right to ask incoming aircraft to identify themselves.

The Chinese military said it sent jets into the area because a “US guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG-114) sailed through the Taiwan Strait,” which it slammed as a “provocative action.”

“The Eastern Theater Command of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sent its forces to track and monitor the US warship’s passage in the whole course,” a spokesperson for the Chinese military’s Eastern Theater Command said in a statement.

“It is hypocritical and futile for the US to conduct this provocative action in an attempt to bolster the ‘Taiwan independence’ forces by making some gestures.”

The rising number of Chinese flights into Taiwan’s ADIZ comes amid Russia’s ongoing military operation in Ukraine.​​​​​​​

Beijing claims Taiwan, an island nation of 24 million people, as a breakaway province, while Taipei has insisted on its independence since 1949 and has diplomatic relations with at least 15 countries.​​​​​​​