Taiwan Military Authorities Report China Crossing Median Line 49 Times This Year

253 Chinese Military Aircraft Entered Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ)
1 Trillion Won Spent on Taiwan Response Sorties

[Asia Economy Beijing=Special Correspondent Jo Young-shin] Taiwan claims that Chinese military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait 49 times this year.

According to Taiwan's Liberty Times and others on the 8th, Yen Der-pa, Taiwan's Minister of National Defense, appeared before the Legislative Yuan's Foreign and National Defense Committee the previous day and revealed that Chinese military aircraft have "violated" the median line of the Taiwan Strait 49 times this year, marking the highest number ever.

Minister Yen stated that the number of Chinese military aircraft entering Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) this year reached 253, and that Taiwan's fighter jets scrambled 2,972 times in response to Chinese military aircraft, costing a total of 25.5 billion New Taiwan dollars (approximately 1.028 trillion Korean won).

After Tsai Ing-wen, who pursues independence, won re-election in Taiwan's presidential election in January and the relationship between the United States and Taiwan became closer, China has reacted by conducting high-intensity military demonstrations in the surrounding seas and airspace of Taiwan.

Chinese fighter jets crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait can reach Taiwan Island within just a few minutes, raising growing concerns in Taiwan about unprecedented high-intensity military pressure from the Chinese military.

The median line of the Taiwan Strait was unilaterally declared in 1955 by U.S. Air Force General Benjamin Davis to prevent military clashes between the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China. Since then, China and Taiwan have tacitly regarded this line as a de facto boundary, but recent analyses suggest that China is attempting to nullify this line through a series of military demonstrations.

The Chinese military also sent aircraft into Taiwan's ADIZ the day before. Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense reported on the 7th that a Chinese KJ-500 early warning aircraft entered the southwestern corner of Taiwan's ADIZ and then flew toward Guangdong Province.

Since the visit of U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Keith Krach to Taiwan on the 16th of last month, the Chinese military has entered Taiwan's ADIZ on a total of 13 days.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.