Beijing called the passage of US military aircraft and ships through the Taiwan Strait in recent months "provocative"

China condemns US military plane flight through Taiwan Strait

photo_camera PHOTO/AP - Xi Jinping, President of China

A US P-8A military aircraft flew over the Taiwan Strait on Friday, the Eastern Theatre Command of the People's Liberation Army (PLA, Chinese Army) reported on its official Weibo social media account today.

Command spokesman Shi Yi expressed the command's "firm opposition" to the flight and warned that forces in the area "remain on high alert at all times" to defend China's "sovereignty and territorial integrity".

Shi said the PLA had organised "ground and air forces" to monitor "all operations" of the US aircraft, an anti-submarine maritime patrol aircraft.

The spokesman accused the US of "deliberately disrupting the regional situation and endangering peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait" by its actions.

This week, Chinese military aircraft flew over what Taiwan considers its Air Defence Identification Zone (ADIZ) on the eve of the NATO and G7 summits, which Chinese state media on Thursday described as "potentially creating turbulence" in the Asia-Pacific region.

The number of Chinese military aircraft entering Taiwan's ADIZ began to rise sharply in late 2021, sending relations between Taipei and Beijing to their worst point in four decades.

China also branded as "provocations" the passage of US military aircraft and ships through the Taiwan Strait in recent months and Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen's acknowledgement last year that the US has a military presence on the island "to train Taiwanese troops".

The island, considered by China to be a rebel province for whose reunification it has not ruled out the use of force, is one of the main sources of conflict between the Asian giant and the United States, due above all to the fact that Washington is Taiwan's main arms supplier and would be its greatest military ally in the event of a military conflict with China. 

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