Chinese plane enters Taiwan's air defence identification zone

A Chinese military plane entered Taiwan's air defence identification zone (ADIZ) on January 2, Sunday.

The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) Shaanxi Y-8 reconnaissance plane flew into the southwest corner of ADIZ.

The information was provided by Taiwan's Ministry of National Defence, reported The Taiwan News.

Taiwan deployed its air defence missile system to track the PLAAF plane. It also sent aircraft and issued radio warnings. During this month alone, two Chinese PLAAF's planes intruded Taiwan's air defence identification zone.

A total of 83 Chinese aircraft have been spotted in Taiwan's identification zone so far in December, including 46 fighter jets, 2 bombers, and 35 spotter planes.

Since September last year, China has increased its use of gray zone tactics by routinely sending aircraft into Taiwan's ADIZ, with most occurrences taking place in the southwest corner of the zone.

Air Defence Identification Zone(ADIZ) is an area that extends beyond a country's airspace. It is the area where air crafts are asked to identify themselves by the air traffic controllers.

Gray zone conflicts are activities by a state that is harmful to another state and are sometimes considered to be acts of war, but are not legally acts of war.

The number of flights is expected to increase further as tensions rise over major political events on two sides of the Taiwan Strait in 2022, Taiwan News reported.

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.

( With inputs from ANI )

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