China Intensifies Offensive Ahead of Taiwan Presidential Election... "10 Military Aircraft Intrude Midline"

China is intensifying military pressure on Taiwan ahead of the Taiwanese presidential election.

Military training scenes of the Chinese People's Liberation Army

The Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense announced on the 23rd at 1:30 PM (local time) that it detected several types of military aircraft belonging to the Chinese People's Liberation Army, including J-16 fighter jets, Y-8 anti-submarine patrol aircraft, and KJ-500 early warning aircraft, conducting reconnaissance activities. Ten military aircraft crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the airspace over northern, central, and southwestern Taiwan.

The median line of the Taiwan Strait is an unofficial boundary declared in 1955 by U.S. Air Force General Benjamin Davis to prevent military clashes between China and Taiwan, following the mutual defense treaty between the United States and Taiwan in December 1954.

The Taiwanese military immediately scrambled fighter jets and activated air defense missile systems to track the aircraft. Earlier, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense reported that from 6 AM the previous day to 6 AM on the day, it detected seven Chinese military aircraft and two warships around Taiwan.

Among the military aircraft, three entered the southwestern and southeastern air defense identification zones of Taiwan. Notably, one Y-8 anti-submarine patrol aircraft departed from mainland China, deeply penetrated the southwestern airspace of Taiwan, and then returned along a similar route.

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese Ministry of National Defense reported detecting an aerial balloon presumed to have come from China on the 20th. The object crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait at around 11:19 PM on the 19th, approximately 63 nautical miles (about 116.7 km) northwest of Keelung City in northern Taiwan, at an altitude of 12,000 feet (about 3.6 km), moving eastward continuously before disappearing at 2:06 AM the next day.

This is the fourth time in December that an object presumed to be a Chinese "reconnaissance balloon" (which China claims is a scientific research airship) has appeared over Taiwanese airspace.

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