TAIPEI: Taipei hit out at China on Sunday (Mar 31) for what it said was a "reckless and provocative" incursion by two fighter jets across a largely respected line dividing the two sides in the Taiwan Strait.

The defence ministry said Taiwan scrambled its own aircraft on Sunday morning and broadcast warnings after two J-11 fighter jets crossed over the "median line" within the waters that separate the island from the mainland.

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"At 11 am, March 31, 2 PLAAF J-11 jets violated the long-held tacit agreement by crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Twitter.

"It was an intentional, reckless and provocative action. We've informed regional partners and condemn China for such behavior," the ministry added.

China has ramped up the number of fighter and warship crossings near Taiwan or through the straits in recent years, rattling nerves on the island at a time when relations are at a low point.

But it is highly unusual for them to cross the so-called median line, a widely agreed upon boundary that passes through the middle of the straits.

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Taiwanese media said the last time Chinese jets had crossed the line was in 2011.

That incident was portrayed by both sides as an inadvertent mistake by two jets responding to a nearby US spy plane.

But on Sunday Taipei described the latest incursion as a deliberate act.

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang called the flights "provocative and damaging the cross-straits status quo".

The flights come a week after the US sailed a destroyer and a coastguard ship through the Taiwan Strait, angering Beijing.

Although the straits are an international waterway China often hits out when US or other western navy ships pass through them.

Earlier this month Taiwan said it had made a formal request to the US for new fighter jets.

Since 2002, the US has repeatedly denied such requests, fearing a possible backlash from Beijing.

But in that time China has massively increased spending on its armed forces, including highly advanced fifth-generation jet fighters.

That has left Taiwan with an ageing airforce that analysts say is outgunned and in desperate need of an upgrade.

China has significantly stepped up diplomatic and military pressure on Taiwan since the Beijing-sceptic President Tsai Ing-wen took office in 2016, including staging a series of military exercises near the island.

She will be fighting for re-election in January 2020.

Last week Tsai made a brief stop in Hawaii to deliver a speech, prompting China to lodge an official protest with Washington.</s>TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan on Sunday condemned what it called a “provocative” move by China after two Chinese fighter jets crossed a maritime border separating the two sides amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.

FILE PHOTO: Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen speaks during "A Civil Society Dialogue on Securing Religious Freedom in the Indo-Pacific Region" forum in Taipei, Taiwan March 11, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu

Earlier on Sunday Taiwan scrambled aircraft to drive away the two Chinese planes, the self-ruled island’s defence ministry said.

China’s move had “seriously impacted regional safety and stability”, the ministry said in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction from Beijing, which views Taiwan as a renegade Chinese province.

Huang Chung-yen, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Presidential Office, said Beijing “should stop behaviour of this sort, which endangers regional peace, and not be an international troublemaker”.

President Tsai Ing-wen had urged the army “to complete all tasks on war preparation”, he added.

China has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle Taiwan during drills in recent years and worked to isolate the island internationally, whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies.

The United States last week sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait, as part of an increase in the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.

Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war and China’s increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.</s>Taiwan has protested what it called a “reckless” and “provocative” flight by two Chinese fighter jets across the so-called median line of the Taiwan Strait, the country said late Sunday.

“At 11 a.m., March 31, 2 PLAAF J-11 jets violated the long-held tacit agreement by crossing the median line of the #Taiwan Strait,” the official Twitter account of the Taiwanese Foreign Ministry said in a tweet. “It was an intentional, reckless & provocative action. We’ve informed regional partners & condemn #China for such behavior.”

PLAAF is the acronym for the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

In the extremely rare flight, Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said that the Chinese warplanes had crossed into its airspace and that it had scrambled fighters in response. Local media reports said the incident had triggered a 10-minute standoff between the Taiwanese and Chinese warplanes.

The 180-km-wide Taiwan Strait separates mainland China from self-governed and democratic Taiwan, which Beijing views as a renegade province that must be brought back into the fold — by force if necessary.

The flight was rare in that Beijing and Taipei have generally respected the median line in the Taiwan Strait, usually keeping their warplanes and ships from crossing it.

Bonnie Glaser, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank in Washington, called the flight “unusual,” but noted that Chinese fighter jets had frequently crossed the median line in the mid- to late-1990s.

However, Glaser said that the Chinese “haven’t done so for at least a decade, likely longer.”

“I’ve been told that Chinese jets approach the midline, but then veer off,” she said.

The flight came just after Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen capped off a tour of several Pacific nations with a visit last week to Hawaii, where she said she had formally submitted new requests to the United States for F-16B fighter jets.

The U.S. has no formal ties with Taiwan but is bound by law to help it defend itself and is the island’s main source of arms. The Pentagon says Washington has sold Taipei more than $15 billion in weaponry since 2010.

China is suspicious of Tsai and her pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party and any push for the island’s formal independence.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said in January that Beijing reserves the right to use force to bring Taiwan under its control, but would strive to achieve peaceful “reunification.”

Beijing has called Taiwan “the most important and sensitive issue in China-U.S. relations” and has bolstered its military presence near the island, sailing its sole operating aircraft carrier through the Taiwan Strait in January and March of last year and holding large-scale “encirclement” exercises and bomber training throughout 2018.

In an editorial published late Sunday, the state-run China Daily newspaper criticized Tsai, saying that she “clearly intends to keep the U.S. tied to her bandwagon of ‘Taiwan independence,’ ” adding that “if Tsai continues to blindly pursue the course she has been taking and gives a cold shoulder to public will, she will pay a dear political price sooner or later.”

The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency noted in a report released in January that China continues to undertake ambitious steps to modernize and better equip its military — steps that are driven primarily by “Beijing’s long-standing interest to eventually compel Taiwan’s reunification with the mainland and deter any attempt by Taiwan to declare independence.”

“Beijing’s anticipation that foreign forces would intervene in a Taiwan scenario led the (People’s Liberation Army) to develop a range of systems to deter and deny foreign regional force projection,” the report added.

Sunday’s move also comes less than a week after the U.S. sent ships through the strait — the third time in as many months — amid Washington’s ramped-up naval activities in the waterway.

Observers have said that those sailings have likely been interpreted by China as implicit support for self-ruled Taiwan.

The most recent saw the U.S. send the Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture-based USS Curtis Wilbur destroyer and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter Bertholf through the strait on March 25 and 26. That mission was unusual, experts said, in that it was believed to be the first one involving a Coast Guard vessel.

Although the waterway is regarded as an international waterway, China has long been sensitive about the presence of U.S. military forces there.

That presence has grown since last year, with the most recent operation being the sixth known transit in about seven months. The U.S. Navy also sailed two ships through the strait in October and November — operations that were shadowed by multiple Chinese warships — and conducted a similar operation in July. Prior to that, the operations were believed to occur only about once a year.</s>TAIPEI (REUTERS) - Taiwan on Sunday (March 31) condemned what it called a "provocative" move from China after two Chinese fighter jets flew past a maritime line amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing.

Earlier on Sunday, Taiwan scrambled aircraft to "drive away" two Chinese fighter jets which it said flew past a maritime border in Taiwan Strait, the self-ruled island's Defence Ministry said in a statement late on Sunday.

The ministry said China's move had "seriously impacted regional safety and stability".

There was no immediate reaction from Beijing.

China has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle Taiwan during drills in the past few years and worked to isolate the island internationally, whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies.

The United States last week sent Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait, as part of an increase in the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.

Taiwan is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the US-China relationship, which also include a trade war and China's increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea.</s>TAIPEI, Taiwan — Taiwan said Monday its planes warned off Chinese military aircraft that crossed the centre line in the Taiwan Strait, and called China’s move a provocation that seeks to alter the status quo in the waterway dividing the island from mainland China.

Taiwan’s defence ministry said a pair of Chinese J-11 jet fighters crossed the line at around 11:00 a.m. Sunday and entered the island’s southwestern airspace. It said Taiwan scrambled jets to warn off the Chinese planes, which came within about 185 kilometres (115 miles) of Taiwan.

“Yesterday, Chinese military aircraft provoked us by violating the tacit agreement by crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait. They backed to the west side of the median line after warnings by our Air Force,” Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said in remarks at a military awards ceremony.

Foreign Ministry Joseph Wu told reporters at the legislature that the line crossing was an intentional act, calling it a provocative and dangerous. He said Taiwan had informed “regional partners” about the incident.

About 160 kilometres (100 miles) wide at its narrowest, the Taiwan Strait opens at its southern end into the South China Sea, where Taiwan and China share overlapping territorial claims. Since the sides split amid civil war in 1949, China has claimed Taiwan as its own territory to be absorbed by force if necessary.

Tsai, who Beijing despises for her pro-independence views, has sought to bolster Taiwan’s air power with the purchase of latest-model F-16V fighters from the U.S., Taiwan’s chief source of defensive weapons.</s>Taiwan says its planes warned off Chinese military aircraft that crossed the center line in the Taiwan Strait, calling China's move a provocation seeking to alter the status quo in the waterway dividing the island from mainland China.

Taiwan's defense ministry said a pair of Chinese J-11 jet fighters crossed the line around 11 a.m. Sunday and entered the island's southwestern airspace. It said Taiwan scrambled jets to warn off the Chinese planes, which came within about 185 kilometers (115 miles) of the island itself.

The ministry said in a tweet that the Chinese planes "violated the long-held tacit agreement by crossing the median line" of the strait.

Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen told reporters that such acts sought to alter the status quo and threatened regional security and stability.</s>Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing Wen has said her country’s air force will conduct a “forceful expulsion” of any Chinese military aircraft that cross the so-called “Median Line” in the Taiwan Strait, which serves as de facto boundary between it and the People’s Republic of China. This comes a day after two Chinese J-11 fighter jets violated the line, prompting Taiwanese jets to scramble in response and eliciting a particularly condemnation from Taipei. This initial incident also followed reports that the United States was preparing to sell advanced F-16 Viper fighter jets to Taiwan, where Beijing has long said it draws a “red line,” and a significant increase in American naval patrols through the Taiwan Strait. Tsai’s announcement first appeared in a post on her official Facebook page on April 1, 2019. The day before, the pair of Chinese J-11 fighter jets had crossed the median line and remained there for approximately 10 minutes, before returning to the other side. Chinese violations of the Median Line are not uncommon, but in the past, the aircraft have typically withdrawn quickly. Though Taiwan sent unspecified fighter jets out to meet the J-11s, it's unclear whether the two actually came within visual distance of each other.

This follows months of increasingly aggressive Chinese aerial activity around Taiwan, which is clearly meant to demonstrate the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) in any future cross-strait skirmish. In May 2018, PLAAF fighter jets and H-6 bombers had notably flown a route that effectively encircled the island, showing its ability to attack from virtually any direction, something that had not necessarily been the case in the past. Beijing “should stop behavior of this sort, which endangers regional peace, and not be an international troublemaker,” Huang Chung Yen, a spokesperson for the Taiwanese president, had said after the boundary line incursion on Mar. 31, 2019, according to Reuters. President Tsai had ordered the country’s military “to complete all tasks on war preparation,” he added.

It’s not entirely clear from Tsai’s statement exactly what measures the Taiwanese Air Force will take in the future to eject Chinese aircraft that cross the Median Line. It certainly means that its combat jets will intercept any incoming planes and demand that they leave immediately, but what amount of “force” Taiwan’s pilots might use to ensure compliance with those instructions remains to be seen. The danger, especially with not knowing the exact extent of Taiwan’s new policy, is that miscommunication or miscalculation in a future incident might quickly lead to a larger cross-strait skirmish. Regardless, Tsai’s statement is a significant escalation in rhetoric and it's hard to see how it won't elicit a fiery response from the government in Beijing. So far, however, China’s Foreign Ministry and Defense Ministry had declined to comment on the breach of the Median Line and the response from Tsai and other Taiwanese authorities. Tsai’s new threat to respond more forcefully to future Median Line violations also reflects a recent spike in tensions between the two parties, as well as between China and the United States, the latter being Taiwan’s principle international ally. After establishing diplomatic ties with China in 1979, the U.S. government broke off technical relations with authorities in Taiwan, but continues to work with officials there through other channels. The United States also reserves the right to sell weapons and other military hardware, ostensibly to bolster the Taiwanese military’s ability to defend against a Chinese intervention. However, in the past, the U.S. government has often shied away from selling Taiwan more advanced military systems that might draw particular ire from Beijing. The sale of new, or even upgraded, F-16 fighter jets to help improve the capability of the increasingly geriatric Taiwanese air force has been a particular saga, which you can read about more here. This attitude has undergone a noticeable change under U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, which has developed stronger ties with Tsai’s government.

In March 2019, reports emerged that U.S. President Donald Trump’s Administration was preparing to approve the sale of dozens of new Block 70 F-16s, one of the latest and most advanced configurations of the jet that Lockheed Martin offers. Taiwan’s acquisition of these more capable fighter jets has long been a “red line” for China and this reported deal may have been part of what prompted the PLAAF to send its J-11s across the Median Line, at least in part, in the first place. The incursion also came just days after the U.S. Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur and the U.S. Coast Guard’s Legend-class cutter USCGC Bertholf sailed through the Taiwan Strait on a so-called Freedom of Navigation patrol, or FONOP. This was the sixth such patrol in nine months, which reflects a major uptick in FONOPs through this region under Trump. There have also been reports that the Trump administration is considering sending an aircraft carrier through the Strait, which would only further heighten regional tensions. In January 2019, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) released a China Military Power report that concluded Beijing’s desire to eventually coerce Taiwan to reunify with the mainland was the “primary driver” of the country’s efforts to expand and modernize its military capabilities. This same report also specifically cited then-U.S. President Bill Clinton’s decision to send two carrier strike groups through the Taiwan Strait in 1996, a massive show of force in response to a major regional crisis at the time, as a key incident that kicked off Beijing’s efforts to rapidly increase the size and capabilities of its forces. The People’s Liberation Army has been notably focused on developing means to counter American aircraft carriers in any future crisis.

The present escalating war of words between China and Taiwan and China and the United States certainly points to a risk of another crisis similar to the one in 1996. In that instance, the inciting incident was the U.S. government’s decision to allow then-President Lee Teng Hui to speak at Cornell University, his alma mater, on “Taiwanese Democratization.” Authorities Beijing had branded Lee as an independence-minded “traitor.” The current Chinese government under President Xi Jinping has similarly labeled Tsai an “independence extremist” and China’s premier has not shied away from threatening to use force to prevent the island from formally breaking away and declaring itself an independent country. “The country is growing strong, the nation is rejuvenating and unification between the two sides of the strait is the great trend of history,” Xi said in a New Year’s address aimed square at Taiwan that he gave before a gathering in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Jan. 2, 2019. “We make no promise to abandon the use of force, and retain the option of taking all necessary measures.”

In 1996, China had responded to Lee’s talk in the United States with a series of snap military drills, including firing DF-15 short-range ballistic missiles near the Taiwanese-controlled Pengjia islet. This, in turn, led to the U.S. Navy show of force involving the two carriers. It’s not clear how a similar series of altercations might go today, and whether sailing carrier groups into the region might be enough now to defuse the situation, especially given China’s increasingly assertive stance elsewhere. Just in January 2019, Chinese forces performed a missile drill involving its relatively new DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missiles that seemed aimed at threatening the prospect of long-range strikes on American forces in the South China Sea. In October 2018, there had also been a very dangerous encounter between People’s Liberation Army Navy and U.S. Navy warships in that hotly contested region. The video below shows Chinese personnel conducting a snap drill involving the DF-26 IRBM in January 2019.</s>Taiwan has condemned what it called a "reckless and provocative" move by Beijing after two Chinese fighter jets crossed a maritime border separating the two sides in the Taiwan Strait.

The rare incursion — Taiwanese media reported the last one occurred in 2011 — on Sunday comes amid growing friction between Taipei and Beijing, including over their competing interests in the Pacific.

Taiwan swiftly mobilised its own aircraft to drive away the two Chinese planes, the self-ruled island's Defence Ministry said in a statement.

China's move had "seriously impacted regional safety and stability," the ministry said in a statement.

There has been no immediate reaction from Beijing, which views Taiwan as a renegade Chinese province and has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control.

Alex Huang, a spokesman for Taiwan's presidential office, said in a statement that Beijing "should stop acting in ways that endanger regional peace and well-being, and not become an international troublemaker".

Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen, had been briefed by the National Security Council and had directed the country's armed forces "take all necessary combat preparedness measures", he added.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had "informed regional partners" of the move.

On Saturday, Ms Tsai wrapped up her "Oceans of Democracy" tour of the Pacific that highlighted the countries' shared liberal values and was designed to shore up her allies in the region.

After visiting Palau, Nauru and Marshall Islands — three of just 17 nations that recognise Taiwan's government — Ms Tsai urged Australia, the United States and Japan to push back against Beijing's growing Pacific influence.

China has been ramping up investment in its Pacific allies, but Ms Tsai accused Beijing of undermining "stability and good governance" in the region.

Beijing, for its part, has been working to isolate the island internationally, whittling down its few remaining diplomatic allies — thereby increasing the importance of the few that remain steadfast in their support of Taiwan.

China has repeatedly sent military aircraft and ships to circle Taiwan during drills in recent years, and recently released a video that included thinly veiled military threats against the island.

Meanwhile Taiwan is hoping to purchase more than 60 Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets from the US, a request that has received the Trump administration's tacit approval, according to a Bloomberg report.

The last time the US sold fighter jets to Taiwan was in 1992, when it delivered 150 of the same model aircraft.

Until now it has resisted further Taiwanese requests for military sales, cautious of China's growing strength and strong opposition to arms deals with Taiwan.

In recent months the US has also sent a number of Navy and Coast Guard ships through the Taiwan Strait, as part of an increase in the frequency of movement through the strategic waterway despite opposition from China.</s>TAIPEI — Taiwan on Sunday condemned what it called a “provocative” move by China after two Chinese fighter jets crossed a maritime border separating the two sides amid growing friction between them.

Earlier on Sunday Taiwan scrambled aircraft to drive away the two Chinese planes, the self-ruled island’s defense ministry said.

China’s move “seriously impacted regional safety and stability,” the ministry said in a statement.

There was no immediate reaction from Beijing, which views Taiwan as part of its territory.

Huang Chung-yen, a spokesman for Taiwan’s Presidential Office, said China “should stop behavior of this sort, which endangers regional peace, and not be an international troublemaker.”</s>The US may finally sell Taiwan the warplanes it has sought for more than a decade to defend against China. Their arrival would deal more of a political shock than a military blow to Beijing.

Trump administration officials have given tacit approval to Taipei’s request to buy more than 60 Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16s, according to people familiar with the matter, setting the stage for the first such deal since 1992. While a few dozen fighter jets would hardly tip the military balance against the increasingly powerful Chinese military, it would signal a new American willingness to back the democratically run island.

“For Beijing, it would be a huge shock,” said Wu Shang-su, a research fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. “But it would be more of a political shock than a military shock. It would be, ‘Oh, the US doesn’t care how we feel.’ It would be more of a symbolic or emotional issue.”

The potential sale is among several gestures of US support for Taiwan in recent months, even as President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping near a deal to end the costly trade war. The US also sailed a warship through the Taiwan Strait and accommodated President Tsai Ing-wen’s stopover in Hawaii last week, drawing protests from China, which denounced the moves as “extremely dangerous.”

Renewed US interest in Taiwan follows growing calls in Washington for a “whole-of-government” effort to prevent China from surpassing American military and industrial dominance. Perhaps nowhere has the power shift been felt more than on Taiwan, an island of 23.6 million people that China aims to eventually control despite 70 years of divided rule.

China has directed its industrial strength toward huge investments in military hardware over the past two decades, building a world-class navy and filling its coastline with missiles capable of hitting Taiwanese targets. The country spent 23 times more than Taiwan on defence in 2017, up from double in 1997.

China’s military spending has far outstripped Taiwan’s over 20 years. New F-16s won’t “change the fundamental balance of capabilities across the strait, nor will it eliminate the threat that China poses to forcibly absorb a democratic Taiwan,” said Scott Harold, an associate director of Rand Corp.’s Center for Asia Pacific Policy. “Taiwan will continue to need to invest in missiles, electronic warfare, mines and other advanced conventional and asymmetric capabilities designed to deter, and if necessary defeat, any Chinese effort to use coercion to compel unification.”

Rand analysts argued in a 2016 report that China’s sophisticated short-range ballistic missiles could “cut every runway at Taiwan’s half-dozen main fighter bases and destroy essentially all” parked aircraft in a conflict. Any planes that made it in the air could face Chinese pilots flying jets such as the J-20, a “fifth-generation” stealth fighter considered to be a rival to Lockheed’s advanced F-22s and F-35s.

Still, the F-16 sale would represent a shift by the US, which is obligated to sell “arms of a defensive character” to Taipei under the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act. Presidents since Bill Clinton have repeatedly rebuffed Taiwan’s requests for new fighter jets and other advanced weapons systems that could provoke Beijing, with Barack Obama agreeing in 2011 to merely upgrade its ageing F-16 fleet.

Tsai said during her visit to Hawaii on Wednesday that a fighter jet deal would “greatly enhance our land and air capabilities, strengthen military morale and show to the world the US’s commitment to Taiwan’s defense.”

The F-16Vs requested by Taiwan is promoted as the world’s most advanced fourth-generation jet, including the latest radar and avionics, even though the original F16 model has been in service for more than 40 years. The aircraft would help the island respond to day-to-day incidents such as air space incursions that fall short of open war and mop up data during routine patrols.

China, which suspended military exchanges with the US in response to previous sales, protested the F-16 move. The foreign ministry said the country lodged “stern representations” with US while the defence ministry warned against moves that undercut the contention that the mainland and Taiwan are part of “one China.”

“Any words or actions that undermine the one-China policy are tantamount to shaking the foundation of China-US relations, are inconsistent with the fundamental interests of China and the United States and are also extremely dangerous,” Senior Colonel Wu Qian said at a briefing Thursday in Beijing.

Taiwan accounted for nearly six per cent of US arms exports from 2013-2017. The sale could be calibrated to test China’s bottom line without breaching it. Xi, the Chinese president, would have to decide whether to risk his trade pact with Trump or even open conflict between two of the world’s most powerful militaries to prevent the sale of a few dozen jets.

The US, meanwhile, refused Taiwan’s request for F-35 fighter jets. Not only would the costly aircraft strain Taiwan’s defence budget, but a deal for America’s most advanced military technology would also be more likely to provoke China’s ire.

“It’s better for us to have F-16s as a first priority,” Feng Shih-Kuan, who served as defence minister under Tsai until February last year and is now at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research. “We won’t feel any sadness if we don’t get F-35s.”
Taiwan condemns China after two PLAAF fighter jets pass the maritime line on the Taiwan Strait. Though there was no immediate response from China, the move comes after a week when the United States Navy and United States Coast Guard sent ships through the Strait.