It has not commented on Thursday's flights.Ĭhina has previously said such missions are to protect the country's sovereignty and aimed at 'collusion' between Taiwan and the United States, the island's most important international backer and arms seller. Taiwan sent up its own fighters and deployed ships and land-based missile systems to keep watch, it said, using typical wording for how it responds to such Chinese activities.Ĭhina's defence ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

China says it does not recognise that and has been routinely crossing it since last year.įour Chinese naval ships were also engaged in 'joint combat readiness patrols', the ministry added, without giving details. It did not specify where the aircraft flew but said 10 had crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait, which separates the two sides and had previously served as an unofficial barrier.

(0600 GMT) on Sunday it had detected 24 Chinese air force planes, including J-10, J-11, J-16 and Su-30 fighters, as well as H-6 bombers.

In a short statement, Taiwan's defence ministry said that as of 2 p.m.

This is the second time in less than a week that Taiwan has reported renewed Chinese military activity, after 37 Chinese military aircraft on Thursday flew into the island's air defence zone, some of which then flew into the western Pacific.Ĭhina, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has over the past three years regularly flown its air force into the skies near the island, though not into Taiwan's territorial air space.

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