Taiwan monitors intensive Chinese naval exercises near island in past 24 hours

WORLD, Dec. 26 (YPA) – Taiwan’s defense ministry said on Monday that its armed forces registered 71 aircraft and seven ships of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) approaching the island in the past 24 hours.

Between 6 a.m. Sunday and 6 a.m. Monday, 47 of the Chinese planes crossed the median of the Taiwan Strait, an unofficial boundary once tacitly accepted by both sides, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense.

Taiwan has sent air and sea patrols to monitor the situation and deployed land-based missile systems, the ministry said.

The situation around Taiwan escalated after US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the island in early August.

China, which considers the island one of its provinces, China condemned Pelosi’s trip, which it regarded as a gesture of support for separatism, and launched large-scale military exercises in the vicinity of the island.

E.M