The Chinese Air Force (Air Force) again carried out a mass flight to the waters of Taiwan, breaking its own record for the number of aircraft involved, Reuters writes on October 3.
According to the agency, 39 air transport units took part in the operation on October 2. Among them were 14 multi-purpose fighters J-16 ("Jian-16") and four Su-30, as well as two reconnaissance Y-8 ("Yun-8"), which took to the air in the daytime, 12 J-16, six Su-30 and one long-range radar detection and control aircraft KJ-500 ("Kunjing-500").
The previous flight of the PRC Air Force was undertaken on October 1, then 38 aircraft took part in it, which flew around the water area to the southeast of the island over the Bashi Strait.
The Ministry of Defense of Taiwan noted that fighter jets were lifted into the air and anti-aircraft missile systems were used to monitor foreign aircraft.
On September 18, the Chinese Armed Forces conducted real-combat exercises in the Taiwan Strait area after the passage of a US Navy missile destroyer through it.
The Taiwan issue remains the most sensitive in the bilateral relations between Washington and Beijing.
Official relations between the Government of the People's Republic of China and its island province were interrupted in 1949, when the Kuomintang forces led by Chiang Kai-shek, who lost in the civil war with the Communist Party of China, moved to Taiwan. Contacts between the island and Mainland China resumed in the late 1980s. The United States openly supports the authorities of Taiwan, and American warships regularly enter the Taiwan Strait.
On August 27, the destroyer of the US Navy "Kidd" and the US Coast Guard cutter "Munro" passed through the waters of the strait. The US military insists that the passages were made in international waters. Beijing considered the US actions a provocation. According to the official representative of the Ministry of Defense of China Tan Kefei, the United States has repeatedly committed such provocations "of a very bad nature." This, he believes, indicates that Washington remains the most important destroyer of peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Beijing also demanded that the United States recognize Taiwan as part of China and observe the principle of unity of the country.
