Several Chinese Su-30 fighters were intercepted over international waters by Taiwanese jets after they crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait Tuesday. The incident comes just a day after a US plane was allowed to fly across Taiwan and days after a US warship sailed through the strait.
According to the South China Morning Post, Taiwan's Ministry of National Defense “detected multiple numbers of Sukhoi Su-30 fighter jets flying southwest” into the country's Air Defense Identification Zone on Tuesday morning, prompting the ministry to dispatch fighters to shadow, intercept and warn the Chinese planes off.
Taiwan claims everything east of the strait's centerline as its own airspace, but legally speaking, Taipei only controls a tiny fraction of the waterway.
US Military Transits Unhindered by Taipei
The incident comes just a day after a US Navy C-40A Clipper cargo plane flew over the length of Taiwan on its way from the US air base on Japan's Okinawa Island to U-Tapao air base in central Thailand. According to Taiwan News, the plane also flew over the Dongsha (Pratas) Islands, a chain southeast of Hong Kong controlled by Taiwan.
The China Times, a Chinese-language paper published in Taiwan, cited Taiwanese officials familiar with the matter in a report that the C-40 had suddenly requested an emergency landing because it was having landing gear problems, adding it was carrying “high-ranking US officials.” However, the plane touched down at Ching…
