Chinese military conducts patrol near Taiwan
Nov 09, 2021
Beijing [China], November 9 : The Chinese military on Tuesday conducted a combat readiness patrol near the Taiwan Straits.
This military exercise comes as a US transport plane, carrying a group of American senators and representatives, landed in Taiwan on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), said that the PLA Eastern Theater Command conducted a joint combat readiness patrol near the Taiwan Straits to "further improve the joint combat capability of multiple military services and branches."
Taiwan said that six PLA aircraft, namely four J-16 fighter jets, a Y-8 reconnaissance aircraft and a Y-8 anti-submarine warfare aircraft, entered the island's southwest air defence identification zone on Tuesday, China's Global Times newspaper reported.
The Taiwan Focus reported that the trip of US senators was arranged by the American Institute in Taiwan, which serves as the de facto US embassy in the country.
This visit comes amid escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait. Recently, Taiwan has been witnessing increasing Chinese military aggression.
Beijing claims full sovereignty over Taiwan despite the separate two sides being governed separately for more than seven decades. Taipei continues to counter the Chinese aggression by increasing strategic ties with democracies including the US.
In October, Taiwanese Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng had said that Beijing might consider mounting a full-scale invasion of the island by 2025.
