Taiwan’s Defense Ministry has estimated that 41 Chinese Army fighter jets have approached its airspace in the past 48 hours, 35 of them on Saturday alone, in an alert that comes just ahead of the expected meeting in Bali, Indonesia, between U.S. President Joe Biden and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry confirmed on Saturday the incursions of 36 aircraft and three ships while this Sunday it has identified five fighter jets and three other ships.
Of these, 21 aircraft approached the median that separates the Taiwan Strait and marks its security zone.
The Government of the island has made use of its social networks to publicize the situation, which has been responded with the deployment of its own aircraft and military vessels while the defense system has been set up.
All this happens less than 24 hours before Biden and Xi put on the table the status of Taiwan and the controversy unleashed at the time by the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Nacny Pelosi, to a territory that Beijing has been claiming for decades.
Pelosi’s visit was considered by China as one of the worst diplomatic aggressions of recent times, interpreting it as a gesture of recognition.
As announced yesterday by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Biden will tell Xi at the meeting that the U.S. military will expand its military presence in the Indo-Pacific region if Beijing does not help defuse tensions with North Korea.
Sullivan said that any new North Korean missile test would «simply result in an increased US military and security presence in the region».
