The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) sent 38 and 39 military aircraft into Taiwan’s “air defense identification zone” on Oct. 1 and 2, respectively, and 16 military aircraft into the airspace southwest of Taiwan’s “air defense identification zone” on Oct. 3, according to Taiwan’s “Free Times”.
Therefore, the PLA sent 93 military sorties to “disturb Taiwan” in the first 3 days of China’s National Day holiday, the most since Taiwan’s Ministry of Defense released such statistics.
Furthermore, the PLA sent a total of 52 military sorties, including 34 sorties of J-16 fighter jets, two sorties of Su-30, two sorties of Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, two sorties of KJ-500 early warning aircraft, and 12 sorties of H-6 bombers, into Taiwan’s southwest air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from the southern end of the central line of the Taiwan Strait on October 4, again setting a new record, according to the data released by Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense on the evening of the same day.
Taiwan’s Air Force Command posted a video on its Official Facebook page titled “Defending the Airspace and Never Compromising” on Saturday night, saying that the Air Force is working day and night to “strictly monitor the situation and never allow enemy aircraft to cross the line.”
October 1st marks the 72nd anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. On the occasion of mainland China’s high-profile commemoration, the timetable for “unification of Taiwan” has once again become a popular topic among Chinese people.
It was pointed out that although peaceful reunification is still Beijing’s first option to solve the Taiwan issue, the road to reunification across the Taiwan Strait is distant and even drifting apart, which is unacceptable to Beijing.