Taipei, December 3 (ANI) — Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defence (MND) reported detecting 10 People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, six People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) vessels and two official ships operating around Taiwan up to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) on Wednesday. According to an MND post on X, four of the 10 aircraft sorties crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s northern air defence identification zone (ADIZ). The ministry said it monitored the activity and responded.
On Tuesday, Taiwan recorded nine sorties of Chinese military aircraft, eight naval vessels and two official ships near its waters; one of those sorties entered Taiwan’s eastern ADIZ.
Separately, former US defence official Ely Ratner, who served as assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs from 2021 until this year, voiced support for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi after her remarks that Japan might assist in defending Taiwan. Ratner told the Taipei Times that Takaichi’s comments reflected Japan’s official position, and described Beijing’s reaction as inappropriate.
On November 7, Prime Minister Takaichi said in parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could be regarded as “a situation threatening Japan’s survival,” which might justify Japanese military action. Her remarks, seen as the most explicit by a Japanese leader in decades about possible intervention in the Taiwan Strait, angered China. Beijing has taken retaliatory economic measures against Japan, including travel and study warnings and delaying resumption of Japanese seafood imports. Xue Jian, the Chinese consul general in Osaka, posted a now-deleted social media message saying Takaichi should be “decapitated.”
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