In one day, the island government noted 39 overflights from its air defense zone, Sunday, the largest daily incursion since October.
Le Monde with AFP
The aircraft of the Chinese army made Sunday, January 23, 39 incursions into the Taiwan air defense zone, according to the Government of the Island, the largest daily incursion since October, in a context of increasing military pressure of Beijing on the democratic island. Among these incursions were 24 hunters J-16, 10 Hunters J-10 and a H-6 bomber with nuclear capacity.
The Defense Taiwanese Ministry indicated in a statement released Sunday night that he had taken off his own planes to follow the 39 Chinese aircraft that had entered the Taiwan air defense identification area (ADIZ). The Taiwanese Ministry of Defense began to make these Chinese war aircraft incursions into the Candiz in September 2020 and the France-Presse Agency (AFP) was a database gathering the details of these flights, which have increased in size and frequency.
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The last quarter 2021 was marked by a peak of these incursions. The month of October remains the most active with 196 incursions, including 149 in just four days, while Beijing celebrated its national holiday. The defense zone does not correspond to Taiwan airspace, but encompasses a much larger area that cuts down part of China’s air defense identification area.
Taiwan recorded 969 Chinese war aircraft incursions in its 2021 air defense zone according to the AFP database, more than double some 380 performed in 2020.
The Taiwanese air force has undergone a series of fatal accidents in recent years, its aging fleet being maintained under pressure by China. The Air Force temporarily nailed its fleet of hunters F-16 at the beginning of the month after one of its F-16V, its most advanced combat aircraft, crashed at sea during a training mission, killing a pilot.