Chinese fighter planes made 159 incursions into Taiwan’s air defense zone in November, according to AFP data, the second highest level for a month, at a time of military pressure from Beijing on the democratic-ruled island.
Taiwan remains under constant threat from a Chinese invasion, which considers the island part of its territory and promises to retrieve it, including by force if necessary.
Taiwan’s Defense Ministry began revealing numbers of China’s air incursions in September 2020, with which the AFP compiled a database.
In November, the Chinese army surpassed 100 incursions in the air identification zone for the third consecutive month and registered the second highest number, only behind the 196 recorded in October.
The incursions include 100 fighters and nine H6 bombers, which have nuclear capability.
Beijing has intensified pressure on Taiwan since President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in 2016, who rejects the principle that the island is part of “one China”.
Tensions have increased in intensity over the past 14 months, as Beijing has boosted the number of military aircraft entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.
The escalation has left Taiwan’s allies, such as the United States and Japan, worried about the possibility of an eventual invasion of the island by China.
The air identification zone is not the same as Taiwan’s airspace, and includes a larger part that at times overlaps with the part of China’s air defense identification space.
If in October Beijing concentrated most of the incursions in the days following the National Day of China, October 1, in November the shipments were less intense, but more constant, with only three days without any incursions.
“The recent situation is particularly dismal with (incursions) almost uninterrupted,” Taiwan Defense Minister Chiu Kuo-cheng said on Monday.
“The intention (of China) is to wear us out slowly, to show that it has this power,” he added.
Over the course of the year, nearly 900 Chinese military planes entered Taiwan’s aerial identification zone. Since the beginning of the publication of the data in September, the number of incursions exceeds one thousand.
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