Taiwan detects 16 fighter jets and nine Chinese military ships in its vicinity

14 Jul. (EUROPA PRESS) –

Taiwanese authorities reported on Sunday that they have detected the presence of 16 fighter planes and nine ships of the Chinese Armed Forces in the vicinity of the island in the context of the escalation of tensions between the parties.

Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said that at around 6 a.m. local time, nine ships and 16 aircraft were recorded around Taiwan, and that 14 of them crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait and entered the island’s air defense identification zone from the southwest and southeast.

The country’s armed forces have monitored the situation and have “responded accordingly,” authorities said on social media.

The situation around Taiwan has worsened since last year, following a visit by former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which was followed by a visit to Washington by a Taiwanese delegation.

Chinese authorities in Beijing have repeatedly said that Taiwanese independence will not be tolerated and that they will not rule out the use of force to prevent secession. Ties between China and Taiwan, which it considers another province under its sovereignty, were severed in 1949 after the forces of the nationalist Kuomintang suffered a defeat in the civil war against the Communist Party and moved to the archipelago. Relations were restored only at a business and informal level in the late 1980s.