A Chinese military plane entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on Sunday, marking the ninth such intrusion this month.
A single People's Liberation Army Air Force Shaanxi Y-8 electronic warfare plane entered the southwest corner of Taiwan's ADIZ on Sunday, according to Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense (MND). In response, Taiwan sent planes, broadcast radio warnings, and deployed air defence missile systems to track the Chinese aircraft, Taiwan News reported.
Air defence identification zones are early warning systems that help countries detect incursions into their airspace.
Any aircraft entering such an area is supposed to report its route and purpose to the "host" nation, though the zones are classified as international airspace and pilots are not legally bound to make such a notification.
Since mid-September of last year, Beijing has stepped up its gray-zone tactics by regularly sending planes into Taiwan's ADIZ, with most instances occurring in the southwest corner of the zone and usually consisting of one to three slow-flying turboprop planes.
Over the past few months, Taiwan has reported incursion by Chinese warplanes into ADIZ almost daily. On March 26, Taiwan reported the incursion of 20 Chinese warplanes.
Last month, Taiwanese premier Su Tseng-change termed the incursion by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADZ) as "unnecessary" and "thoughtless."
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan, a democracy of almost 24 million people located off the southeastern coast of mainland China, despite the fact that the two sides have been governed separately for more than seven decades.
Taipei, on the other hand, has countered the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US, which has been repeatedly opposed by Beijing.China has threatened that "Taiwan's independence" means war.
Wu Qian, spokesperson of China's Ministry of National Defence, on January 28 "warned" the people wanting "Taiwan independence" and had said that "those who play with fire will set themselves on fire, and seeking 'Taiwan independence' means nothing but war".
( With inputs from ANI )
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