TAIPEI, August 4(ABC): Taiwan scrambled jets on Wednesday to warn away 27 Chinese aircraft in its air defence zone, the island’s defence ministry said, adding that 22 of them crossed the median line separating the self-ruled island from China amid rising tensions.
China demonstrated its outrage over the highest-level US visit to the island in 25 years by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi with a burst of military drills around Taiwan, summoning the American ambassador in Beijing and halting several agricultural imports from the island.
In the latest uptick in tensions across the sensitive Taiwan Strait, Taiwan said it dispatched aircraft and deployed missile systems to “monitor” the Chinese activities into its air defence identification zone, or ADIZ.
Taiwan, which China claims as its own territory, has complained in recent years of repeated missions by the Chinese air force near the democratically governed island, often in the southwestern part of ADIZ.
