Beijing’s warships remain close to Taiwan and fighter sorties continue despite PLA declaring end to 3-day drills
- The island’s defence ministry said it had spotted 9 warships around the island while more than dozen warplanes have crossed an unofficial dividing line
- Chinese state broadcaster CCTV broadcasts call by mainland military researcher to remove ‘tumour’ of Taiwanese independence forces
The island’s defence ministry said it had detected nine PLA warships and 26 warplanes around the self-ruled island between 6am and 11am on Tuesday – hours after the PLA declared the end of its live-fire drills.
“As of 11am, the Chinese Communists have organised military aircraft to cross the median line [the unofficial dividing line in the Taiwan Strait] from the north, the centre and the south,” it said, adding that the planes included J-10, J-16 and Su-30 fighters, as well as K-200 early warning aircraft.
“Those planes crossed the median line and our southwest air defence identification zone (ADIZ) 14 times,” the ministry said.
Beijing had largely toned down its rhetoric about Taiwan on Tuesday, although state broadcaster CCTV still aired comments by a researcher at the PLA’S Academy of Military Sciences who said military action will continue until “Taiwan independence forces” are totally eliminated.
The researcher Zhao Xiaozhuo said: “Taiwan independence is a tumour on the Chinese nation, and as long as it exists, we must show our sword and continue with anti-Taiwan independence military operations,” he said.