ACTIVITY NEAR SOUTH KOREA, TAIWAN
South Korea’s military said it also scrambled fighter jets when the Chinese and Russian aircraft entered its air defence identification zone on Tuesday, an area that extends beyond its airspace and is used for early warning.
Chinese military ships and aircraft operate almost daily around Taiwan, in what Taipei says is part of Beijing’s ongoing pressure campaign.
On Thursday, Taiwan’s defence ministry reported a stepped-up Chinese military presence for a second day in a row. It said it had detected 27 aircraft, including nuclear-capable H-6K bombers, conducting a “joint combat readiness patrol”, along with warships around the island.
Late on Wednesday, the ministry said Chinese J-16 fighters and H-6 bombers had again carried out long-range training in the Western Pacific after passing to the south of Taiwan.
Regional tensions have risen since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi triggered a dispute with Beijing last month with her remarks on how Tokyo might react to a hypothetical Chinese attack on Taiwan.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan and has not ruled out using force to take control of the island, which sits just over 100km from Japanese territory and is surrounded by sea lanes on which Tokyo relies.