Taipei — 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 the island up to 6 a.m. (UTC+8) on Wednesday. The MND said in a post on X that four of the 10 aircraft crossed the median line and entered Taiwan’s northern air defence identification zone (ADIZ). The ministry added that it monitored the activity and took responsive measures.
The ministry also noted that on Tuesday it recorded nine Chinese military aircraft sorties, eight naval vessels and two official ships near Taiwan; one of those sorties entered the island’s eastern ADIZ.
Separately, former U.S. defence official Ely Ratner, who served as assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs from 2021 until this year, expressed 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 stance and called Beijing’s reaction inappropriate.
On Nov. 7, Prime Minister Takaichi told parliament that a Chinese attack on Taiwan could be seen as “a situation threatening Japan’s survival,” a formulation she said might justify Japanese military action. Those remarks, described as the most explicit by a Japanese leader in decades about possible intervention in the Taiwan Strait, drew anger from Beijing. China has responded with retaliatory economic measures, including travel and study advisories and delaying the 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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