Taiwan’s government said today that 18 Chinese nuclear-capable bombers entered the island’s air defense zone, in a record incursion amid heightened tensions with Beijing.
In the past 24 hours, 21 planes entered Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), including 18 nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense said.
Taiwan’s ADIZ is larger than the archipelago’s airspace and includes part of China and the mainland.
China has dramatically increased the number of raids into southwest Taiwan’s restricted area over the past two years, but this is by far the biggest raid by H-6 bombers since Taipei started publishing daily data in September 2020, according to the France-Presse news agency.
Last week, China imposed new bans on the import of food, drink, alcohol and fish products from Taiwan, prompting the island’s prime minister, Su Tseng-chang, to accuse Beijing of violating international trade rules and ” to discriminate” Taipei.
The H-6 is China’s main long-range bomber and can carry nuclear warheads.
It’s rare for China to send more than five H-6 bombers in a day, but raids have increased significantly in recent weeks.
Last month, 21 of these bombers flew over Taiwan’s ADIZ, and the current tally for this month is 23.
Taiwan’s 23 million people live under the constant threat of invasion from Beijing, which sees the island as part of its territory to be reclaimed one day, if necessary by force.
*With Lusa
