Taiwan denounces a new intrusion of Chinese fighter planes in its airspace

Taiwan's defense minister said he put his air defense on alert after the new incursion of Chinese fighters into his airspace (illustration: Taiwanese fighter plane during a military exercise in July 2020) REUTERS - ANN WANG

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According to Taiwan, China carried out its second largest incursion of the year into the island's air defense zone yesterday, Monday (May 30), with the entry of 30 planes into the area, including 20 fighters. 

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Taiwan's defense minister announced Monday night that he had taken off his own planes and deployed air defense missile systems to monitor Chinese activity.

30 PLA ​​aircraft (KJ-500 AEW&C*2, Y-8 ELINT*4, Y-8 EW*1, Y-8 ASW*1, J-16*6, J-11*8, J-10*4, SU-35*2, and SU-30*2) entered #Taiwan's southwest ADIZ on May 30, 2022. Please check our official website for more information: https://t.co/0lmMYSyNQr pic.twitter.com/OwUE8CXF5G

— 國防部 Ministry of National Defense, ROC 🇹🇼 (@MoNDefense) May 30, 2022

Taipei said the incursions are the largest

when 39 planes entered the island's Air Defense Identification Zone ("Adiz").

Beijing has begun in recent years campaigns of incursions into the defense zone of Taiwan which lives under the constant threat of an invasion from China.

Last year, Taiwan recorded a record 969 Chinese military aerial incursions, according to the AFP database, more than double the 380 incursions in 2020.

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: faced with the fear of an invasion, civil defense formations are multiplying in Taiwan

On October 4, 2021 alone, 56 aircraft entered Taiwan's Adiz, and 196 for the whole of October, which opens with the Chinese National Day.

Taiwan has reported 465 incursions since the beginning of the year, an increase of almost 50% compared to the same period last year.

Joe Biden on the front line

The United States accused Beijing last week of escalating tensions over Taiwan, with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken explicitly mentioning aerial incursions as an example of "increasing rhetoric and activity". more provocative.

A few days earlier, US President

, had assured that Washington was

in the event of an attack from China: "We agreed with the one China policy, we signed it (…), but the idea that (Taiwan) can be taken by force is simply not appropriate”, warned Joe Biden in Tokyo on May 23.

But the White House later insisted that

 over whether or not intervention was possible had not changed.

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Off the coast of Taiwan, large-scale exercises by the Chinese army

and with AFP

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