CHINA sent 18 warplanes, including bombers and fighters into the air defence zone of Taiwan today, said the island’s government, in the second-largest one-day incursion this year.

Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by Beijing, which sees the self-ruled democratic island as part of its territory to be retaken one day, by force if necessary.

The final quarter of last year saw a spike in Chinese incursions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (Adiz), with the biggest single-day breach on October 4, when 56 warplanes entered the zone.

Eighteen Chinese aircraft, including two H-6 bombers as well as 12 J-11 and J-16 fighter jets, crossed into the Adiz today, said Taipei’s Defence Ministry.

It is the second-largest single-day sortie this year, after 39 warplanes entered the zone on January 23, according to a database compiled by AFP.

The ministry said it scrambled its own aircraft to broadcast warnings and deployed air defence missile systems to track the jets.

Taiwan started regularly publicising its data on air incursions only in September 2020.

October 2021 remains the busiest month on record, with 196 incursions, of which 149 were made over just four days as Beijing marked its annual National Day.

China has ramped up pressure on Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen was elected president in 2016, as she considers the island a sovereign nation and not part of Chinese territory.

Taiwan recorded 969 incursions by Chinese warplanes into its Adiz last year, according to AFP database – more than double the roughly 380 carried out in 2020.

The figure for this year already exceeds 370 as of today.

The Adiz is not the same as Taiwan’s territorial airspace and includes a far greater area that overlaps with part of China’s Adiz. – AFP, May 6, 2022.