Taiwan tracks 71 Chinese military aircraft, 9 naval ships

A total of 71 Chinese military aircraft and nine naval ships were detected in the general vicinity of Taiwan on Saturday as of 4 p.m., as China appeared to ramp up its deployment of aircraft missions in the area, according to Taiwan’s military.

A total of 45 warplanes either crossed the Taiwan Strait median line or flew into the southwestern part of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ), the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said, without providing any further breakdown of the routes.

Among the Chinese military planes deployed were J-10 fighters, J-11 fighters, J-16 fighters, Y-20 transport aircraft, H-6K bomber aircraft, and KJ-500 airborne early warning and control aircraft, the MND said.

The ministry noted, as it usually does when talking about incursions by People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft into Taiwan’s ADIZ, that the military scrambled combat air and naval patrols and deployed defense missile systems to track the Chinese military aircraft and warships.