TAIPEI: Taiwan said it scrambled fighter jets Monday after Chinese military aircraft briefly crossed into its airspace, the first major incursion since the island’s Beijing-wary president was re-elected in January.
Taiwan’s defense ministry said a Chinese H-6 bomber and accompanying aircraft briefly crossed over a “median line” in the Taiwan Strait.
It was only the second time Chinese aircraft crossed the largely respected line dividing the two sides in the strait since March last year.
The aircraft returned to Chinese airspace after “our fighter jets took appropriate responsive and interceptive measures and broadcast warnings to leave,” the ministry said in a statement.
It did not specify how many and what type of Chinese aircraft had crossed the median line.
Last March, two Chinese J-11 fighter jets crossed over the line for the first time in years, prompting Taipei to accuse Beijing of violating a long-held tacit agreement in a “reckless and provocative” incursion.
China has ramped up the number of fighter and warship crossings near Taiwan or through the strait since President Tsai Ing-wen was first elected in 2016.
Her government refuses to acknowledge that Taiwan is part of “one China.”
In December, shortly before elections, a newly commissioned Chinese aircraft carrier sailed through the Taiwan Strait for a second time.
The Shandong, China’s first domestically built carrier, also traversed the strait in November, sparking concerns from Washington’s de facto embassy in Taiwan.
Tsai won a second term in a landslide in January in an outcome seen as a forceful rebuke of Beijing’s ongoing campaign to isolate the island.
China still sees the self-ruling democratic island as part of its territory and vows to one day seize it, by force if necessary.
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Chinese military aircraft cross into Taiwan airspace: Taipei
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Chinese military aircraft cross into Taiwan airspace: Taipei
- Chinese H-6 bomber and accompanying aircraft briefly crossed over a ‘median line’ in the Taiwan Strait
- It was only the second time Chinese aircraft crossed the largely respected line dividing the two sides in the strait since March last year
Trump to launch Board of Peace that some fear rivals UN
- US president sees board as going beyond Gaza to address global challenges
- 35 countries including Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye have committed; Russia considering
DAVOS, Switzerland: US President Donald Trump will on Thursday launch his Board of Peace, originally envisaged to help end the Gaza war but which he now sees having a wider role that Europe and some others fear will rival or undermine the United Nations.
Trump, who will chair the board, has invited dozens of other world leaders to join it and sees the grouping addressing other global challenges beyond Gaza, though he does not intend it as a replacement for the United Nations, he has said.
Some traditional US allies have balked at joining the board, which Trump says permanent members must help fund with a payment of $1 billion each, either responding cautiously or declining the invitation.
No other permanent member of the UN Security Council — the five nations with the most say over international law since the end of World War Two — except the US has yet committed to join.
Russia said late on Wednesday it was studying the proposal after Trump said it would join. France has declined. Britain said on Thursday it was not joining at present. China has not yet said whether it will join.
However, around 35 countries have committed to join including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkiye and Belarus.
The signing ceremony will be held in Davos, Switzerland, where the annual World Economic Forum bringing together global political and business leaders is taking place.
Sputtering Gaza ceasefire
The board’s charter will task it with promoting peace around the world, a copy seen by Reuters showed, and Trump has already named other senior US officials to join it, as well as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The ceasefire in Gaza, agreed in October, has sputtered for months with Israel and Hamas trading blame for repeated bursts of violence in which several Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.
Both sides accuse each other of further violations, with Israel saying Hamas has procrastinated on returning a final body of a dead hostage and Hamas saying Israel has continued to curb aid into Gaza despite an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Each side rejects the other’s accusations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation by Trump to join the board, the Israeli leader’s office says. Palestinian factions have endorsed Trump’s plan and given backing to a transitional Palestinian committee meant to administer the Gaza Strip with oversight by the board.
Trump has been characteristically bold in his comments on Gaza, saying the ceasefire amounts to “peace in the Middle East.”
Even as the first phase of the truce stumbles, its next stage must address much tougher long-term issues that have bedeviled earlier negotiations, including Hamas disarmament, security control in Gaza and eventual Israeli withdrawal.
On Wednesday in Davos, Trump met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country played a major role in Gaza truce mediation talks, and they discussed the board.
Trump, who will chair the board, has invited dozens of other world leaders to join it and sees the grouping addressing other global challenges beyond Gaza, though he does not intend it as a replacement for the United Nations, he has said.
Some traditional US allies have balked at joining the board, which Trump says permanent members must help fund with a payment of $1 billion each, either responding cautiously or declining the invitation.
No other permanent member of the UN Security Council — the five nations with the most say over international law since the end of World War Two — except the US has yet committed to join.
Russia said late on Wednesday it was studying the proposal after Trump said it would join. France has declined. Britain said on Thursday it was not joining at present. China has not yet said whether it will join.
However, around 35 countries have committed to join including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Turkiye and Belarus.
The signing ceremony will be held in Davos, Switzerland, where the annual World Economic Forum bringing together global political and business leaders is taking place.
Sputtering Gaza ceasefire
The board’s charter will task it with promoting peace around the world, a copy seen by Reuters showed, and Trump has already named other senior US officials to join it, as well as former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
The ceasefire in Gaza, agreed in October, has sputtered for months with Israel and Hamas trading blame for repeated bursts of violence in which several Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.
Both sides accuse each other of further violations, with Israel saying Hamas has procrastinated on returning a final body of a dead hostage and Hamas saying Israel has continued to curb aid into Gaza despite an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe.
Each side rejects the other’s accusations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation by Trump to join the board, the Israeli leader’s office says. Palestinian factions have endorsed Trump’s plan and given backing to a transitional Palestinian committee meant to administer the Gaza Strip with oversight by the board.
Trump has been characteristically bold in his comments on Gaza, saying the ceasefire amounts to “peace in the Middle East.”
Even as the first phase of the truce stumbles, its next stage must address much tougher long-term issues that have bedeviled earlier negotiations, including Hamas disarmament, security control in Gaza and eventual Israeli withdrawal.
On Wednesday in Davos, Trump met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, whose country played a major role in Gaza truce mediation talks, and they discussed the board.
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